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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE WHY 

OF 

METHODISM. 



BY 

DANIEL DORCHESTER, D.D. 



"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory \ 
for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake" — Psa. 115. 1. 




l\ iii \y x wan. . 

PHILLIPS & HUNT. 



CINCINNATI: 

CRANSTON & STOWE. 
1887. 



Copyright, 1887, by 
PHILLIPS & HUNT, 

New York. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 



Introduction 5 

I. Origin , 9 

H. Character 25 

III. Influence 51 

IV. Polity 89 

V. Lessons. 167 

VI. Statistical Exhibit 176 

Index Ill 



INTRODUCTION. 



On the first Sunday in May, 1887, in re- 
sponse to a courteous invitation by the pastor 
of the Unitarian church in Chelmsford, Mass., 
I occupied his pulpit and answered the ques- 
tion of his propounding : Why am I a Method- 
ist? Prominent ministers of other denomina- 
tions had responded to similar invitations, in 
the same pulpit, during the winter and spring, 
each vindicating his Church relation: Rev, 
Smith Baker, D.D., for the Congregationalists ; 
Rev. Dr. A. P. Peabody, for the Unitarians; 
Rev. James Reed, for the Swedenborgians; 
Rev. Dr. Bush, for the Episcopalians; Rafybi 
Schenkle, for the Jews, etc. 

I introduced my discourse by saying that, if I 
had been asked to "tell how I came to he a Meth- 



6 



Introduction. 



odist, I should have said, My father was a 
Methodist minister from 1816 to 1854, and I 
found myself, in childhood, in the lap of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. At an early age 
I became a subject of religious impressions, 
professed conversion, and formally united with 
this Church, 

Since I reached more mature years, in fol- 
lowing out my mental inquiries, as I have come 
in contact with other currents of thought, I 
have been led, again and again, to reconsider 
the whole question of the divinity of Christian- 
ity and my Church relationship. As the result 
of each investigation, I have always been reas- 
sured in regard to both, so that my present rela- 
tion to Christianity and to Methodism may be 
accepted as justified by my maturest thought, 
confirmed and reconfirmed in the presence of 
all the doubts, queries, objections, etc., of the 
so-called "advanced thought" of our times, with 
which I have endeavored to keep myself fa- 
miliar. 



Introduction, 



7 



The claims I shall put forth for Methodism 
are very high. No one can be more sensible of 
this than I am. But I do not see how I can abate 
them, and face the facts. I therefore set them 
forth in no personal feeling of invidiousness or 
boasting, though some comparisons and other 
allusions to other denominations are made, be- 
cause my topic, as I apprehend it, cannot well 
be developed without it. And the whole work 
is done in the spirit of the motto on the title- 
page: 

"Not unto us, 0 Lord, not unto us, but 
unto thy name, give glory, for thy mercy 
and for thy truths sake? 

The view of Methodism which I shall pre- 
sent is not narrow and technical, for it has not 
been by a few little things — some slight pecul- 
iarities — that my choice has been decided ; but 
it is a broad survey of Methodism, as it stands 
forth in the religious history of the eighteenth 
and nineteenth centuries. It is the setting 



8 



Introduction. 



which Providence has given it upon the canvas 
of the age ; for Methodism has been a great 
factor of the times, and has deeply wrought 
itself into the life of the world. Methodism 
was raised up by God to perform a great and 
needed work. 

It is this providential feature of Methodism 
that most deeply impresses me. It is the full 
conviction I have that the hand of God has 
been and still is in Methodism, 

In its inception J 
In its character ; 
Ir its influence ; 
In its polity, 

that makes me a Methodist ; for I want to live 
and work in line with God. 

Chelsea, Mass., June 1, 1887. 



THE WHY, 

AS TO ITS ORIGIN. 



Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy 
Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be wit- 
nesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all 
Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the utter- 
most parts of the earth.— Acts L 8. 



As to Its Origin. 11 



t 

As to Its Origin, Methodism was Raised 
up by God for the Revival of Modern 
Christianity. 

Intelligent students of history are familiar 
with the lapsed condition of Protestantism and 
the dubious religious prospects of the world 
when Methodism arose, in 1739 ; one hundred 
and forty-eight years ago. 

Looking out upon the world at large, at that 
period, we find the Grand Sultan, the Sophi, 
and the Great Mogul the most potent arbiters 
of the destinies of nations. Compared with 
them, England, Russia, Germany, and the 
United States, now so mighty over vast areas, 
were then greatly inferior powers, with little 
political influence. The papacy dominated 
middle and southern Europe, was united to the 
state, and dictated all legislation. Nearly all of 



12 The Why of Methodism. 



Asia and Africa were under pagan and Moham- 
medan sway. The mighty worlds of Austral- 
asia and Polynesia and the East Indian Archi- 
pelago lay in the undisturbed slumbers of sav- 
agery and superstition. Scarcely three hundred 
thousand Protestant colonists occupied both 
American continents. All the remainder of this 
hemisphere was pagan or papal. All the relig- 
ious missions of the world, except a few amcng 
the North American Indians in the English colo- 
nies,- were papal; and the only religion not dis- 
seminating itself was the Protestant. During 
this period, the Society for Propagating the Gos- 
pel in Foreign Parts was formed in London to 
furnish the Gospel to the English colonists, and 
the Moravians commenced their foreign mis- 
sionary work; but both were very feeble begin- 
nings. Two hundred and tw^enty-two years had 
passed since the great Reformation was inau- 
gurated under Luther. Protestantism had tri- 
umphed, and securely intrenched itself in polit- 
ical power, in most of northern Europe and in 
the British Isles. 



As to Its Origin. 13 



Turning to England, we find that Puritanism 
and other forms of dissent, as sub-protests 
within the circle of Protestantism, championing 
a still purer faith and life, had arisen, exerted 
their influence, and passed away. The rigid 
regimen of Cromwell was followed by a terrible 
rebound — the fatal, sweeping reaction extend- 
ing through a hundred years, leaving English 
Christianity, in the first half of the last century, 
in the darkest condition since the birth of En- 
glish Protestantism. 

Atheism and profanity were never so ascend- 
ant. Thick gloom overspread the horizon, and 
the dim religious light was "like the evening 
of the world." Political and social corruption, 
never since equaled, were every- where rampant. 
P Statesmen served their country and the devil 
together, laughing at the very idea of good- 
ness, and encouraging their sons in shameless 
wickedness." 

As for the English court, Bishop Stevens 
said, "It was a royal brothel." Dr. Samuel 
Johnson said to Boswell, " I remember the time 



14 The Why of Methodism. 



when it was common for English gentlemen to 
go to bed drunk every night in the week, and 
they were thought none the worse of for it." 
Delicate young women, in the highest circles, 
unblushingly talked " with a coarseness which 
editors of our day represent by asterisks." 
Such vile poetry as was then applauded would 
forever damn modern poetasters. The people 
laughed at indecency and profanity. The 
churches afforded no relief to the dark picture, 
for the reformers themselves needed to be re- 
formed. Of the clergy of the Established 
Church, what shall we say but that they were 
involved in the general corruption? Those of 
the dissenting Churches were little better. 

The North British Review said: "Never 
has a century risen on England so void of soul 
and faith as that which opened with Queen 
Anne (1702), and reached its misty noon be- 
neath the second George (1732-1760) — a dewless 
night succeeded by a sunless dawn. . . . The 
Puritans were buried, and the Methodists were 
not born. . . . The world had the idle, discon- 



As to Its Okigin. 15 



tented look of the morning after some mad 
holiday." 

Sir John Barnard said : " It really seems to 
be the fashion for a man to declare himself of no 
religion." Montesquieu said : " There is no re- 
ligion in England. If the subject is mentioned 
in society, it excites nothing but laughter. Not 
more than four or five members of the House of 
Commons are regular attendants at church." 
Bishop Butler said : " It has come, I know not 
how, to be taken for granted by many persons, 
that Christianity is not so much as a subject of 
inquiry. . . . And nothing remained but to 
set it up as a principal subject of mirth and 
ridicule." 

In the magnificent cathedrals of England, on 
the Lord's day, the most eminent prelates 
preached to a dozen hearers ; seldom, to two 
hundred ; occasionally, to nobody but the sexton 
and the choir. The Dean of St. Patrick's, in 
Dublin, once preached to the sexton alone, and 
the gist of his sermon was, " Be a good man, 
John, and a Tory." 



16 The Why of Methodism. 



Bishop Burnet said : " I cannot look on with- 
out the deepest concern when I see the immi- 
nent ruin hanging over this Church, and, by 
consequence, over the whole Reformation." 
Speaking of the clergy, he said : " They think it 
a great hardship, if they are told they must 
know the Scriptures and the body of divinity 
better, before they can be trusted with the 
care of souls." 

Blackstone (about 1760) listened to every 
clergyman of note in London, and said that 
" he heard not a single discourse which had more 
Christianity in it than the writings of Cicero ; 
and that it would have been impossible for him 
to discover from what he heard, whether the 
preacher was a follower of Confucius, Moham- 
med, or of Christ." 

Marsh :* " The common people of the Church 
of England were almost wholly neglected by 
her leading divines, and were fast sinking into 
practical Atheism, when those wonderful men, 
Whitefield and Wesley, arose, and by astonishing 

* Ecclesiastical History, p. 357. 



As to Its Origin. 



17 



boldness and zeal arrested the attention of thou- 
sands on thousands to divine things." 

Southey said : " There never was less religious 
feeling, either within the Establishment or with- 
out, than when Wesley blew his trumpet and 
awakened those who slept." 

Arianism and Socinianism were fashionable 
in the Established Church, and tainted the 
theology of many intelligent Dissenters. Even 
among the Independents and Presbyterians, the 
departures from evangelical theology were radi- 
cal. Latitudinarianism spread widely through 
all religious bodies, and evangelical teachings 
w^ere excluded from the pulpits. 

A large class of divines held to a refined sys- 
tem of ethics having no connection with Chris- 
tian motives or the vital principle of spiritual 
religion. " Dr. Blair, at Edinburgh, and Bishop 
Porteus, at London, were droning moral plati- 
tudes in the pulpit, while the masses of the peo- 
ple — especially in England — never heard of them 
or of the gospel they professed to preach. Never 

before, nor since, has the phenomenon been so 
2 



18 The Why of Methodism. 



signally developed of Christianity gasping in the 
struggle to live on the religion of nature. The 
religion of the realm was Christianity without 
Christ. All that was peculiar to Christ as the 
way of salvation was practically ignored." * 

Leslie Stephen says : " Hume and Paley cu- 
riously agreed in recommending young men of 
freethinking tendencies to take clerical orders." 
Many of the clergy " taught little that might 
not have been taught by Socrates or Confucius." 
Mr. Leckeyf says : " The doctrines of depravity, 
the vicarious atonement, the necessity of salva- 
tion, the new birth, faith, the action of the Di- 
vine Spirit in the believer's soul, during the 
greater part of the eighteenth century, w T ere sel- 
dom heard from in the Church of England pul- 
pits." " Christianity was reduced to the lowest 
terms." 

Isaac Taylor says of the Established Church, 
that it was " an ecclesiastical system under which 

* Professor Austin Phelps, D.D., in the Congregationalism 
March, 1886. 

\ History of England in the 18th Century. 



As to Its Origin. 



19 



the people of England had lapsed into heathen- 
ism, or a state hardly distinguished from it." 

I pass by the similar testimonies of Dr. Watts, 
Archbishop Seeker, and others. 

The condition of the Churches in the Ameri- 
can colonies was not much better. After visit- 
ing America, Whitefield said, " I am persuaded 
that the generality of preachers talk of an un- 
known Christ ; and the reason why the congre- 
gations have been so dead is because they have 
had dead men preaching to them." The devoted 
Jarratt said of the ninety-five Episcopal min- 
isters of Virginia, that he " knew of only one 
besides himself who held evangelical senti- 
ments." 

These rapidly narrated statements comprise 
only the briefest possible exhibit of the dismal 
condition and dubious prospects of religious 
faith during the first half of the last century. 

The Quickening. 

In the midst of this low religious condition 
the great revival under the Wesleys had its 



20 The Why of Methodism. 



origin. A striking analogy may be traced be- 
tween the Wesleyan renaissance and the re- 
naissance of the pre-Ref ormation period. In the 
latter, by which the revival of learning was 
ushered in all over Europe, and the Reformation 
as its sequence, classical studies performed a 
leading part. First, Roman literature was ex- 
plored anew ; then the Greek classics. Greece 
was visited, and in the troublesome times cul- 
minating in the capture of Constantinople, 
numerous Greek scholars, as refugees, rich in 
literary treasures, fled to the halls of the Medici, 
where they were received as apostles by eager 
students of the Greek tongue who crossed the 
Alps from northern and western Europe. Thus 
the new quickening was extended ; many great 
European universities were started, and new 
throbs of intellectual life were given to the 
world. 

So the Wesleyan renaissance had its incep- 
tion in connection with classical life and study. 
The memorable club, at Oxford University, led 
by John Wesley, all proficients in the ancient 



As to Its Origin. 



21 



classics, devoted special attention to the critical 
study of the Greek Testament. Entering prayer- 
fully into the inspection of the divine word, 
they were drawn into closer contact with the 
divine mind, and felt the pulsations of the 
divine heart. Clearer religious ideas and new 
impulses of spiritual life wakened them to 
higher convictions, and stimulated them to 
heroic religious action. The close, continuous, 
and prayerful study of the Greek Testament 
called off their minds from existing standards, 
kept them steadily directed to Christianity, in 
its original form and spirit, and made them pant 
to be conformed to it in heart and life. Thus 
apostolic Christianity became reproduced in 
them, investing them w T ith new elements and 
measures of spiritual power, which made them 
the instaurators of a new era in the history of 
the Church of God. 

The Methodist revival began as religious 
awakenings generally do, among the lower 
orders. But its reverberations soon reached the 
more cultivated society ; and those infidel lords, 



22 The Why of Methodism. 



Bolingbroke and Chesterfield, rode out in stately 
carriages to see what " these Methodist loons 
were making such an ado about." The striking 
psychological phenomena of the movement were 
closely studied by such philosophic minds as 
Hume and Benjamin Franklin. Every Protest- 
ant sect soon felt the thrill. It was a baptism 
of fire. 

The new religious zeal awakened detestation 
and obloquy. Those who became Methodists 
dropped out of respectability. Even persons in 
humble life, boot-blacks and chimney-sweeps, 
found there were social depths beneath them, to 
which the Methodists were consigned. Families 
were disrupted and children disinherited. Some 
cursed the Methodists in the-day time, but crept 
into their assemblies at night. Some believed, 
notwithstanding they had denounced them ; and 
some denounced, because they believed. But 
every Church felt the new commotion. The 
Church of England could not wholly withstand 
the movement, for within her pale was heard 
the voice of the prophet. By direct reproof and 



As to Its Origin. 



23 



by the power of contrast, Methodism put new 
life into the Established Church, which has 
never since been wholly lost. The remonstrant 
action of Methodism was a stimulant, calling 
forth into living use resources long buried in 
the ancient standards. Every other religious 
denomination felt the throb of the Wesleyan 
pulsations. 

All Methodist converts, male and female, 
were joyful witnesses for Christ, and went forth 
to active labor for their new Master. Wesley- 
anism was characterized by an intense vitality. 
It had in it more depth, more body, more solid- 
ity, and more distinctive religious character 
than the recent Salvation Army movement. It 
made itself known and felt, not by drum and 
fife, but by its own irrepressible, unmistakable, 
and constantly self-attesting religious life. 
Wherever it went, it lifted men to higher 
planes of moral character, and invested them 
with a cheerful, unaffected sanctity. It was a 
live, aggressive, regenerating force. Under the 
influence of Whitefield and the Countess of 



24 



The Why of Methodism. 



Huntingdon, Calvinistic nonconformity rose, as 
from the dead, with an energy increasing ever 
since ; and a powerful spiritual party was formed 
in the Established Church. 

Looking back now to the first half of the last 
century, and following the stream of religious 
life to our times, we see that those young men 
of the " Oxford Club," stigmatized as Meth- 
odists, under the divine guidance and aid in- 
cepted a new era in the history of Christianity, 
which may fittingly be denominated a renais- 
sance in modern Christianity, lifting it out of 
its low conditions into higher spiritual conditions. 



THE WHY, 

AS TO ITS CHARACTER. 



How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, 

Th>j tabernacles, O Israel! 

As valleys are they spread forth, 

As gardens by the river side, 

As lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted, 

As cedar trees beside the tvaters.—Nux. 24. 5, 6. 

Rev. Ver, 



As to Its Character. 27 



n. 

As to Its Character, Methodism, Under 
God, is the Reproduction of Apostolic 
Christianity. 

It is not a new thingto characterize Method- 
ism as a revival of apostolic Christianity. But 
it is more : it is a reproduction ; still more, it 
is the propagation of the recovered ideal. 

We have already noticed that, when Wesley 
was in his cradle, practical, experimental religion 
was almost wholly unknown in England. When 
he came to be a man, and had his eyes opened 
to the deep spiritual meaning of the divine 
word, he lamented the dark and ruinous condi- 
tion of religion all around him. He saw that 
while the great Reformation broke the dominion 
of popery in northern and western Europe, it 
only partially recovered the original character 
of Christianity ; and that, in his day, it had so 



28 The Why of Methodism. 



sadly lapsed from its condition under the re- 
formers, that what passed for religion was only 
a miserable parody upon pure Christianity. In 
such a time, John Wesley rose from his critical 
and prayerful communion with the Greek Tes- 
tament, and proclaimed the original gospel — 
primitive Christianity. 

Let us now analyze the Methodist movement, 
and inquire what were some of the elements of 
apostolic Christianity which had been practi- 
cally lost, but were recovered by Methodism, 
and brought back into the actual life of the 
Church of God. 

1. The first and most noticeable point in this 
restored ideal is spiritual vitality , as the prime 
element in personal religion. 

In the early Church, signs of life appear on 
every hand ; but after Christianity ascended the 
throne of the Caesars, it lost its spirituality. In 
the succeeding centuries, rites, ceremonies, and 
dogmas were substituted for vital godliness. In 
this condition Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, Calvin, 
and Knox found it giving chief emphasis to 



As to Its Character. 29 



three things : submission to the hierarchy, a close 
observance of rites and ceremonies, and the ac- 
ceptance of dogmas ; ignoring the inward expe- 
rience and the outward life. Grace and salva- 
tion, it was claimed, were conveyed through the 
exercise of priestly functions to submissive 
souls. This was all. No spirituality, nothing 
pertaining to character, was essential. 

What did the Reformers do? Wycliffe, 
Huss, and Jerome of Prague were chiefly con- 
troversialists, seeking to reform the Church from 
corrupt doctrines. The same was true with 
Luther, Calvin, and their co-workers. While 
there is no question but that they knew and 
taught much of practical, experimental relig- 
ion, yet their work was chiefly with dogmas. 
The Church of Rome had persecuted as heretics 
those whose opinions deviated from her decre- 
tals. The reformers fell into the same practice, 
on the vital mistake that religion consists in 
opinions. With what pertinacity did Luther 
insist upon assent to his seventeen Articles of 
Faith — the Augsburg Confession. Calvin vexed 



30 The Why of Methodism. 

and persecuted all persons within liis territorial 
area who did not subscribe to his twenty-one 
Articles of Faith. He compelled the citizens 
of Geneva not only to sign but also to swear by 
them, on pain of punishment. The registers of 
Geneva show that 414 persons were punished 
during two years (1558, 1559) for dissent to 
some one or more of his articles of belief ; and 
Servetus was burned at the stake. 

We do not undervalue the labors of the re- 
formers. These men had a work to do, and 
performed valuable service to the Church of 
God, notwithstanding these glaring blemishes. 
The same things were true in Protestant En- 
gland, where the Thirty -nine Articles were the 
test. Assent to them was the chief essential in 
personal religion ; for the objective aim of the 
Reformation seemed to be primarily to draw 
men from the papal hierarchy and its dogmas 
to a new faith. At first the Puritans and 
other dissenters seemed to give prominence to 
the more spiritual elements of Christian char- 
acter, for which they are entitled to great credit. 



As to Its Character. 31 



They reproved the people for their gross depart- 
ures from the original intent of the Reforma- 
tion, and called for better living. But they fell 
into the grievous fault of giving opinions undue 
prominence, insisting upon minute conformity 
to every item of their creed on the part of every 
communicant. When they set up a goverment 
for themselves in New England, by the law of 
the land every person was required to subscribe 
to their creed, before he could be a communicant 
or even an enfranchised citizen. The result 
was that religion came to be regarded as little 
more than a compliance with formulas of faith. 
For a long period prior to the advent of Meth- 
odism, says Parsons Cooke, it was the general 
custom in New England to receive members 
into the church " upon their consenting to a 
confession of faith," without requiring a Chris- 
tian experience. 

Many ministers, in New England and in Old 
England, in the churches of our Middle States 
and all over Protestant Europe, entered into the 
holy office of the Christian ministry without a re- 



32 The Why of Methodism. 



ligious experience, and many never reached such 
an experience. Their preaching, when it com- 
prised something more than a little semi-pagan 
moralizing, was made up of dry doctrinal dis- 
cussions, with a keen scent for heresy. They 
aimed chiefly to convert men to a set of opinions, 
for orthodoxy in belief was regarded as the 
chief essential in religion. 

Such was the condition of the Protestant 
Churches in Europe and America when Meth- 
odism arose. 

John Wesley went forth preaching religion of 
the heart. From the first the most notable char- 
acteristic of Methodism was spirituality. Mr. 
Wesley said : u I make no opinion the term of 
union with any man. I think and let think. 
What I want is holiness of heart and life. They 
who have this are my brother, and sister, and 
mother." As early as 1743, Mr. Wesley said : 
" The distinguishing marks of a Methodist are 
not his opinions of any sort. His assenting to 
this or that scheme of religion, his embracing 
any particular set of notions, his espousing the 



As to Its Character. 33 



judgment of one man or of another, are all quite 
wide of the point." 

Mr. Wesley imposed a single condition on 
those who joined his societies ; namely, "a desire 
to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved 
from their sins," and that it should be shown by 
appropriate fruits / namely, "doing no evil" 
and " doing good of every kind." He declared, 
" We do not impose, in order to admission, any 
opinions whatever. We only ask, Is thy heart 
right as my heart? If it be, give me thy 
hand." Hence, Methodism has ever been a 
standing protest against bigotry. Its special 
mission is to develop holiness and charity. 

While Wesley did not make speculative opin- 
ions the test of piety, he nevertheless insisted, 
with all the intensity of his soul, upon the great 
doctrines of the cross, and did all he could to 
build up a spiritual life upon and around them. 
He put them in the foreground, guarded and 
defended them. He did so, because he regard- 
ed these truths vital to Christian experience. 

Methodism has ever given great prominence to 
3 



34 The Why of Methodism. 



experience. It has its doctrines, and it has ever 
vindicated them ; but, at the same time, it has 
ever been noted for its catholicity — giving great 
latitude to belief — looking chiefly to the expe- 
rience as the best conservator of theology. This 
experience Methodism has ever regarded as the 
first qualification for the ministry. All other 
denominations had required learning and rec- 
ommended piety ; Methodism required piety 
and recommended learning. 

Methodism has thus been a new life. This 
has made it a quickening power. 

2. The second element in this ideal was a 
legitimate concomitant of the preceding — a re- 
vivalistiCy soul-saving efficiency. 

The earliest stages of the apostolic Church 
were continuous revival periods. " The Lord 
added unto the Church daily such as were 
saved." * Acts ii, 47. How long this condition 
continued we know not. When the Church 
joined in an unholy alliance w r ith the State, 
spiritual life and evangelistic power declined. 
* Substantially the revised version. 



As to Its Character. 35 



The Church became dead, with only here and 
there living members and living groups. 

The Reformation of the sixteenth century 
fought the outward battle, and wrought out 
the great principles of Protestantism, but did 
not, at first, develop much spirituality. From 
Luther to Wesley, there were few seasons of 
soul-saving efficiency except among the Mora- 
vians, the Presbyterians in Scotland, the Puri- 
tans of the earlier period in England, and of 
the first twenty years in the Massachusetts Bay 
Colony. 

When Methodism arose, this downward tend- 
ency to spiritual death and formalism had 
reached its lowest point. But, from its start, 
Methodism was a quickening power in the val- 
ley of dry bones. New life appeared, and re- 
vivals occurred w T ith increased frequency in 
almost all the Churches. The soul-saving pow- 
er of Methodism was wonderful. It has been 
well said, " To the listlessness of the pulpit and 
the ungodliness of the people, Wesley opposed 
three truths, which he believed to be drawn di- 



36 The Why of Methodism. 



rectly from the New Testament : 1. Man is lost. 
2. Man may be saved, if he will. 3. He may 
be saved now ; with a tremendous emphasis on 
the now." * Wesley was a pronounced super- 
naturalist, believing in the direct influence of 
the Holy Spirit in awakening and saving men. 
His followers held the same faith ; and revivals 
inevitably followed such preaching. 

3. Another distinctive feature of apostolic 
Christianity revived by Methodism is the uni- 
versal priesthood of believers. 

The laity of the apostolic Church were 
every-where active in religious services; and 
divine grace flowed directly to individual be- 
lievers through the exercise of personal faith 
in Christ, the great High-priest. When the 
Church declined in spiritual character, the hier- 
archy assumed the exclusive functions of be- 
stowing grace, and the laity were made depend- 
ent upon the prerogatives of an earthly priest- 
hood. 

After long centuries, Luther arose and pro- 

* Dr. George R. Crooks. 



As to Its Character. 37 



claimed anew, "every man his own priest." 
The theory of the priesthood of believers was 
fought out in the Lutheran Reformation, but 
was not fully carried out in the actual life of 
the Protestant Churches. It was developed in 
an excessive and fanatical form among the Ana- 
baptists of Germany and the early Quakers. It 
had a better development among the Puritans, 
and better still among the Moravians. But 
Methodism gave it a stronger impulse, put every 
convert upon his feet to testify for Christ, re- 
moved the padlock from woman's lips, and gave 
special prominence to social services. It insti- 
tuted class-meetings, a means of grace unknown 
before. When Methodism arose, laymen sel- 
dom participated in religious meetings, and 
there were few prayer-meetings — in large areas, 
none. 

Methodism every - where magnified social 
meetings. "Methodism," says Dr. Abel Stev- 
ens, "has practically restored the primitive 
'priesthood of the people,' not only by the ex- 
ample of its lay local ministry, more than twice 



38 The Why of Methodism. 



as "numerous * as its regular ministry, but by its 
exhorters, class-leaders, prayer-leaders, and the 
religious activity to which it has trained its 
laity generally." 

4. Another characteristic of apostolic Chris- 
tianity which Methodism revived, in her genius 
and life, was an aggressive missionary spirit. 

The apostolic Church could not be localized. 
It continually looked beyond existing limits, and 
reached out unto unchristianized regions. In 
the course of time this spirit declined, and 
Church extension depended upon the civil 
power. 

Early Protestantism was not distinctively 
missionary. Eliot, the Mayhews, and Brainerd 
among the Indians in America, the Moravians in 
Greenland and the West Indies, and a few Danes 
in southern India comprised the whole missionary 
movements of Protestantism until after the Wes- 
leyan Reformation. Before the birth of Wesley- 
anism the tendency of devout spiritual inquirers 

* Over seventy thousand Methodist local preachers in the 
world. 



As to Its Chakacter. 39 



was to an intense self -hood in religious life. They 
pent up themselves in the cells of individual 
being — were hermits in their religious tastes, 
breathing a cloistral atmosphere, spending much 
time in morbid introspection, all showing ripest 
manifestations in self-centered monastic seclu- 
sion. This tendency was apparent in the earlier 
experiences of the Wesleys, Whitefield, and the 
other members of the " Oxford Club." The 
writings of the Mystics, Thomas a Kempis, 
Taylor, etc., were devoutly read and re-read, un- 
til they narrowly escaped a cloistral life. Their 
diaries were records of fluctuating religious 
moods and unsatisfying " experiences." 

The baptism of the Spirit which they recei ved 
saved them from their misconceptions and from 
themselves. Thenceforth they felt "the power 
of an endless life," and could not stagnate in a 
self-centered life, or ferment in a compressed 
cloister. The electric element of Christian 
faith found outlet in large-hearted Christ-like 
action. From the self -centered type of religion, 
there was a tremendous recoil to the self- 



40 



The Why of Methodism. 



diffusive type of daring Christian activities. 
This was the secret power that projected those 
magnificent religious developments, Christian 
missions — foreign, domestic, and city. A mis- 
sionary map at once became the symbol of the 
new Christianity — or rather of the old Chris- 
tianity revived and restored. 

Methodism was essentially missionary from 
the beginning. It never sought to occupy 
places prepared to hand, but it went directly 
to the people, in the streets, fields, commons, 
slums, and collieries. Its work was new work. 
It had a "go" in it — the gospel "go" — and 
was always going out further and further, among 
the destitute and neglected. It spread by the 
contagion of Christian love. It was not long in 
getting into Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Then 
it appeared in the West Indies, in 1760; in 
Newfoundland, in 1765; in the United States, 
in 1766 ; and in Nova Scotia, in 1774. When 
only thirty years old, it was raising money for 
missionaries in the West Indies and the United 
States; and only forty years after the first 



As to Its Character. 41 



Methodist class was formed it organized a Bible 
Society — the first of a multitude of Bible So- 
cieties now in Christendom. When forty-five 
years old it organized the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church in the United States, the largest of 
all the offshoots of Wesleyanism. 

5. Another feature of apostolic Christianity 
which Methodism revived is pecuniary and 
philanthropic benevolence. 

I need not dwell upon the striking evidences 
of these qualities in the apostolic Churches, 
which surprised the heathen and extorted their 
encomiums. Classic paganism knew nothing 
like it. When the Church became worldly, this 
spirit declined, and funds were extorted by the 
sale of offices, benefices, indulgences, and other 
selfish methods. 

Under early Protestantism, pecuniary benev- 
olence had a slow and meager development. 
The Moravians gave it an impulse ; next came 
Wesley, instructing his followers, " Get all you 
can ; save all you can ; and give all you can ; " 
and binding them to give " a penny a week, and 



42 The Why of Methodism. 



a shilling a quarter." Wesley rigidly enforced 
this rule. No religionist ever so emphasized 
the duty of giving, so anathematized covetous- 
ness and selfishness, so sharply reproved those 
who hoard up money, or so consistently and 
self-forgetfully illustrated his ideas of giving, 
in his own life. His life was a continuous ser- 
mon on benevolence. 

6. Another feature of apostolic Christianity 
revived by Methodism is moral purity as a con- 
dition of Church membership. 

Of the apostolic Christians, it was said that 
the people " took knowledge of them that they 
had been with Jesus." Christ's impress was 
seen in his followers. Gradually the Church 
became corrupt, appallingly corrupt. 

Protestantism was an improvement, but even 
its earliest stages were accompanied by wild ex- 
cesses, lawlessness, and licentiousness, so that 
Luther said, " It seems as though for every 
devil expelled ten others came." Under early 
Puritanism there was developed a grandly pure, 
but rigid, austere, and sometimes cruel moral- 



As to Its Character. 



43 



ity, which sacrificed the sweet amenities of 
true virtue, and fell into grievous faults. Reac- 
tion followed, and a low standard of admission 
to the Church existed in Europe and America. 
Those who suppose the moral standard of the 
New England churches, a century and more 
ago, was very high, and that the character of all 
the members was very saintly, do not correctly 
understand the situation. There was a good 
deal of sanctimoniousness on Sunday, and holy 
tones, and nasal whines, and punctilious ob- 
servance of certain ceremonies. But drunk- 
enness, sometimes of the clergy, and too often 
of the laity, "bundling" and licentiousness, 
oversharpness in trade, etc., were no barri- 
ers to membership in the churches. In the 
Middle States the moral condition was even 
worse. 

Methodism, from the outset, was a sharp pro- 
test against immorality. It insisted upon pure 
lives ; and thus it became not merely a revival 
but a reformation. This will be seen from 
John Wesley's " General Rules," which are 



44: The Why of Methodism. 



given here entire. The life-blood of Method- 
ism is in them : 

There is one only condition previously required in 
those who desire admission into these societies — a de- 
sire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved 
from their sins. But, wherever this is really fixed in 
the soul, it will be shown by its fruits. It is therefore 
expected of all who continue therein that they should 
continue to evidence their desire of salvation : 

First, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every 
kind, especially that which is most generally practiced : 
such is, the taking the name of God in vain ; the profan- 
ing the day of the Lord, either by doing ordinary 
work thereon, or by buying or selling; drunkenness, 
buying or selling spirituous liquors, or drinking them, 
unless in cases of extreme necessity; fighting, quarrel- 
ing, brawling, brother going to law with brother, re- 
turning evil for evil, or railing for railing; the using 
many words in buying or selling; the buying or selling 
uncustomed goods; the giving or taking things on 
usury, that is, unlawful interest; uncharitable or un- 
profitable conversation, particularly speaking evil of 
magistrates or ministers; doing to others as we would 
not they should do unto us; doing what we know is 
not for the glory of God, as the ' 1 putting on of gold 



As -to Its Character. 



45 



and costly apparel ; " the taking such, diversions as can- 
not be used in the name of the Lord Jesus ; the singing 
those songs or reading those books which do not tend 
to the knowledge or love of God; softness, and needless 
self-indulgence; laying up treasures upon earth; bor- 
rowing without a probability of paying ; or taking up 
goods without a probability of paying for them. 

Second, by doing good, by being in every kind mer- 
ciful after their power; as they have opportunity, doing 
good of every possible sort, and, as far as is possible, 
to all men : to their bodies, of the ability which God 
giveth, by giving food to the hungry, by clothing the 
naked, by visiting or helping them that are sick or are 
in prison; to their souls, by instructing, reproving, or 
exhorting all they have any intercourse with; trampling 
under foot that enthusiastic doctrine of devils, that "we 
are not to do good unless our heart be free to it ; " by 
doing good, especially to them that are of the house- 
hold of faith, or groaning so to be ; employing them 
preferably to others; buying one of another; help- 
ing each other in business; and so much the more, be- 
cause the world will love its own, and them only; by all 
possible diligence and frugality, that the Gospel be not 
blamed; by running with patience the race that is set 
before them, u denying themselves and taking up their 
cross daily ; " submitting to bear the reproach of Christ, 



46 The Why of Methodism. 



to be as the filth and off-scouring of the world ; and 
looking that men should "say all manner of evil of 
them falsely for the Lord's sake." 

Thirdly, by attending upon all the ordinances of God. 
Such are the public worship of God ; the ministry of the 
word, either read or expounded; the Supper of the 
Lord; family and private prayer; searching the Script- 
ures ; and fasting or abstinence. 

7. Finally, Methodism restored simplicity 
and purity to Christian doctrine. 

In apostolic times elaborate dialectical forms 
were unknown in the statement of truth. The 
great Teacher and his apostles presented truth 
in simple forms, without any attempts to har- 
monize and shape the truth into systems to 
suit human caprices or preconceived logical 
conditions. "When the Church declined, biblical 
truth fell into the hands of the schoolmen, who 
coerced it into the categories and syllabuses of 
the subtle Greek, thrust it into the waistcoat of 
dialectical formularies, and bound it down and 
smothered it by the decrees of councils and 
the bulls of popes. Thus theology became a 



As to Its Character. 



47 



dry scholastic husk, and a spirit of dogmatism 
dominated thought. In this condition, the 
Eeformation found it; and under Protestant- 
ism much of the scholastic form and dogmatic 
spirit were retained. 

Methodism came forth "a religion without 
philosophy," that is, in its objective presentation. 
It discarded scholastic and philosophical forms, 
and the dogmatic spirit. Wesley's mind was prac- 
tical and executive, rather than speculative. He 
could have ranked high in scholastic and philo- 
sophic disquisitions. But he felt that he could 
not afford to engage in such work. He was so 
intent upon saving men that he sought the most 
direct method of reaching and moving the re- 
ligious consciousness. His heart was on fire, and 
his convictions were "facts articulate." The 
fundamental ideas of Christianity he appre- 
hended as facts rather than as speculative doc- 
trines. These he affirmed with great emphasis . 
and beyond them his motto was, " Think and 
let think." He and his fellow-workers claimed 
to be preachers, not theologians. And yet 



48 The Why of Methodism. 



Methodist pulpits, says an eminent Congrega- 
tional divine, have done "a knightly service" 
to theology of the vital, working kind. 

When Methodism arose, Churchmen and 
many dissenters held that the Spirit of God 
had virtually departed from the world, ceasing 
with the miracle-working power of the apos- 
tolic age ; and that the Bible and the Church 
took the place of the Spirit.* Wesley contend- 
ed that the Holy Spirit is still to be expected 
to work in human hearts ; that its influence is 
immediate and direct ; and he connected it with 
the kindred doctrine of immediate justification 
by faith, and the comforting assurance of adop- 
tion by the same Spirit. Wesley persistently 
declared that these doctrines are contained in 
the articles of the Church of England, though 
obscured by the glosses of the theologians until 
their meaning was lost. 

It was such perverse speculations that made 
Wesley say he was " sick of opinions " — of opin- 
ions offered as substitutes for character, and of all 

* Hunt's Histo7~y of Religious Thought in England. 



As to Its Character. 



49 



theology which did not help men to a spiritual 
life. Every question pertaining to salvation 
Wesley submitted to the Bible, and laid par- 
ticular stress upon doctrines which minister to 
life. The motto of Wesley and of Methodism 
has ever been, "Life is more than dogma." 
This we believe has been the beginning of the 
renovation of modern theology. Dogma is of 
importance chiefly as it ministers to life. A 
theology Methodism has, clearly defined and in- 
sisted upon, but it is chiefly concerned with 
those doctrines which mediate salvation to the 
human soul. Nor does it make the Christian 
consciousness the judge of what is divine in 
Scripture; but it makes the Scripture the test 
of the purity and reality of the Christian con- 
sciousness. 

The wisdom of this doctrinal attitude of 

Methodism is seen from the fact that now, after 

almost one hundred and fifty years since its 

origin, no great heresy can be charged upon it ; 

nor has there ever been any schism, out of the 

many that have occurred in Methodist ranks, 
4 



50 The Why of Methodism. 



occasioned by divergent theological views; nor 
has there ever been needed any special repres- 
sive effort to put down erratic doctrinal ten- 
dencies from within. 

Such are the elements of apostolic Chris- 
tianity, which had long been lost out of the 
actual life of the Christian Church, but which 
were brought back, and made active working 
forces in the modern Church, through the in- 
fluence of Methodism. As to the effects, we 
shall see in the next chapter. 



THE WHY, 

AS TO ITS INFLUENCE. 



Surely there is no enchantment against J a- 
cob 9 neither is there any divination against 
Israel : according to this time it shall be said 
of Jacob and of Israel, WHAT HATH GOD 
WROUGHT!— Num. 23. 23. 



As to Its Influence. 53 



III. 

As to Its Influence, under God, Method- 
ism has been, and still is, a Re-enforcement 
of the Church Universal. 

Since Methodism revived the apostolic em- 
phasis upon religious experience, as the essen- 
tial condition of Church membership, and an in- 
dispensable qualification for the Christian minis- 
try, spirituality has had a prominence, in almost 
all religious bodies, unknown for long ages. 

Methodism and Revivals. 
The revivalistic, soul-saving power of the 
Churches has also been augmented. The reviv- 
als in the Non-conformist Churches in England, 
not to speak of the Established Church, were 
very f^;v for a century before Methodism arose. 
In this country, outside of fifteen years (1735- 
1745, 1795-1800), during all the last century, 



54 



The Why of Methodism. 



there were few revivals. Many individual 
churches can be specified which had no revival 
for thirty, forty, fifty, and even one hundred 
years. Accessions came through the Half-way 
Covenant. 

Key. Ebenezer Porter, D.D., pastor of the 
Congregational Church in Washington, Conn., 
had a revival in 1801, but says* that for the 
sixty-four previous years of the existence of that 
church there had been no revival. Rev. Dr. 
Storrs,f of Braintree, Mass., had a revival in his 
church in 1811, but could find no evidence of 
any other revival in the previous one hundred 
years of its history. Rev. E. D. Griffin, D.D., 
said : $ " Long before the death of Whitefield, 
in 1770, extensive revivals in America had 
ceased, except one in Stockbridge and some 
other parts of Berkshire Co., Mass., about 1772 ; 
and one in the north quarter of Lyme, Conn., 

* New England Revivals. By Bennet Tyler, D.D., p. 309. 
f Semi-Centennial Sermon. 

\ Lectures on Revivals. By Rev. W. B. Sprague, D.D. Al- 
bany, 1832. Appendix, p. 151. 



As to Its Influence. 55 



about the year 1780 ; and one in several towns 
in Litchfield Co., Conn., about the year 1783. 
I know of none that occurred afterward, until 
the time of which I am to speak— 1797-1803." 
Rev. Luther Hart, of Connecticut, said :* " From 
an examination of all the records which we have 
been able to command, and from a pretty exten- 
sive inquiry of the living, we cannot find more 
than fifteen places in New England in which 
there was a special work of grace during the 
first forty years after the ' great revival ' under 
Edwards and Whitefield." 

With rare exceptions, the condition of the 
Churches all over the country was like what has 
been described. From 1750 to 1800 was a long 
period of turmoil and distractions : the French 
and Indian Wars ; the agitations preceding 
the Revolution; the troubles of the Revolu- 
tion ; the evils of the post-bellum period ; the 
French infidelity and English deism ; the gross 
wickedness ; the political controversies, sharp, 
violent, and vindictive, connected with the adop- 

* Christian Spectator, June, 1833. 



56 The Why of Methodism. 



tion of the Federal Constitution ; the evil influ- 
ence of the French Revolution, which so many 
Americans closely sympathized with, are some 
of the elements which worked unfavorably to 
the cause of religion. 

The Wesleyan Reformation revived English, 
and, in due time, American, Christianity. In 
small re-enforcements Methodism came to Amer- 
ica, after 1766. It was organized at Baltimore, 
as a national Church, in 1784. Soon after, it 
penetrated all the States, and was felt as a pow- 
erful evangelizing agency. 

A few revivals occurred in western Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut, in 1797 and 1798, then 
all over the land, from 1799 to 1803, originating 
in Tennessee, with two brothers, a Methodist and 
a Presbyterian. Methodism had then become 
a flaming torch, lighting its fires in every field. 
The great revival of 1800 inaugurated a new era 
in American Christianity— an era of higher spir- 
ituality, and revival, soul-saving power — since 
which time revivals have become more numer- 
ous and powerful, so that they have awakened 



As to Its Influence. 57 



the interest of the divines of continental Europe. 
During the last thirty years many churches have 
had a well-nigh uninterrupted revival condition. 

As the result of this quickened condition, the 
evangelical Churches of the United States in- 
creased from 364,000 communicants, in 1800, 
to about 12,000,000, in 1886— a thirty-two- fold 
increase, while the population increased only 
eleven-fold. 

Students of ecclesiastical history have esti- 
mated that, at the close of the first century of 
the Christian era, Christianity numbered not 
over 500,000 converts in the whole world. But 
in eighty-six years American Christianity alcaie 
gained over 11,500,000, or twenty-three times 
as many. 

The part that Methodism has shared in 
this work may he judged from the fact that 
about 4,500,000* of the 12,000,000 com- 
municants, or over one third, in 1886, 
were Methodists of various branches. 

* See table at the end of the volume. 



58 The Why of Methodism. 



It is impossible to find a parallel of such re- 
markable revivalistic, soul-saving efficiency in 
the Christian Church, in all its history, as has 
been witnessed in connection with the influence 
of Methodism, in England and America, dur- 
ing the last one hundred and fifty years. As the 
efficient agent in this work, Methodism has ever 
given great prominence to the supernatural 
power of the Holy Spirit. 

As to the priesthood of believers, Methodism 
has been a liberal contributor to the universal 
Church by her example and influence in calling 
all her converts into active work for the divine 
Master. We have noticed that such activities 
were not common when Methodism arose, and 
not until her influence had been widely extended. 
A fact will give us a view of the situation. 

We have a testimony from the Half-Century 
Discourse (pp. 7, 8) of Rev. John Fisk, pastor 
of the Congregational Church in New Brain- 
tree, Mass., delivered October 20, 1846 : "Fifty 
years ago, it was an unusual thing that any duty 
of a devotional character was performed, even 



As to Its Influence. 



59 



by professors of religion, except in their own 
families, especially in the presence of their pas- 
tor. It was not until I had been in this place 
more than eleven years, that I was permitted to 
hear a sentence of prayer offered by one of my 
people. So far as I ever learned, under the 
ministry of my predecessor there was not a social 
meeting in this place. It was much after this 
fashion in most other churches." 

What progress has been made during the cent- 
ury, in the single item of prayer-meetings, in 
almost all denominations ! What multitudes of 
laymen have been called out into Christian ac- 
tivities ! Lay evangelical work in almost infinite 
variety — in city missions, home missions, for- 
eign missions, in young men's and young 
women's Christian associations, in Christian 
temperance work, in colportage, in Sunday- 
schools, in tract distribution, in neighborhood 
meetings, etc. — traces its origin and impulse to 
the divine seal stamped upon the initial use of 
such forces in the Wesleyan revival. 

It was inevitable that from such a reproduc- 



60 The Why of Methodism. 



tion of apostolic Christianity tlie general 
Church would catch the spiritual contagion. In 
the last decade of the last century, when Meth- 
odism had pervaded England, had penetrated 
the Established Church and the Non-conformist 
sects, and turned back the tide of formalism and 
infidelity, there began to be an awakening of 
zeal for the salvation of the world, and the great 
English foreign missionary societies were 
formed. In America, a few feeble beginnings 
of missionary societies, all for the home field, 
started just at the close of the last century, and 
the great foreign mission societies came into 
being in the quarter of a century following the 
opening of the revival era to which we have 
referred. City missions followed, and other 
evangelizing agencies — the glory of the modern 
Church. 

Piety has ceased to be ascetic, has come out 
from the cloisters, and gone forth among the 
masses. Never since apostolic times has the 
general Church so deeply felt her duty to con- 
vert the world as during this century. 



As to Its Influence. 



61 



Modekn Evangelizing Agencies Started by 
Methodism. 

As to pecuniary benevolence, so inculcated by 
Wesley, and illustrated so conspicuously in his 
life and followers, the fruitage in the general 
Church is abundant. After England had been 
aroused, warmed, and illuminated by Meth- 
odism, the great English benevolent societies 
were organized. 

In his Life of "Wesley, Tyerman says : " The 
first British Bible Society that existed, ' The 
Naval and Military,' was projected by George 
Cussons, and organized by a small number of 
his Methodist companions. The London Mis- 
sionary Society originated in an appeal from 
Melville Home, who, for some years, was one of 
Wesley's itinerant preachers, and then became 
the successor of Fletcher, as vicar of Madeley. 
The Church Missionary Society was started by 
John Venn, the son of Henry Yenn, a Meth- 
odist clergyman. The first Tract Society was 
formed by John Wesley and Thomas Coke, in 



62 The Why of Methodism. 



1782, seventeen years before the organization 
of tlie present great Religious Tract Society in 
Paternoster Row — a society, by the way, which 
was instituted chiefly by Rowland Hill, and two 
or three other Calvinistic Methodists. It is be- 
lieved that the first dispensary that the world 
ever had was founded by Wesley himself, in con- 
nection with the Old Foundry, in Moorfields. 
The Stranger's Friend Society, paying every 
year from forty to fifty thousand visits to the 
sick in London, and relieving them as far as 
possible, is an institution to which Methodism 
gave birth, in 1785." 

The Naval and Military Bible Society re- 
ferred to was formed in 1779, twenty-five 
years before the great British and Foreign 
Bible Society was organized — the first of the 
numerous Bible societies now existing in the 
world. 

Mr. Tyerman says : " It deserves to be men- 
tioned that Hannah Ball, a young Methodist 
lady, had a Methodist Sunday-school at High 
Wycombe, fourteen years before Robert Raikes 



As to Its Influence. 63 



began his at Gloucester ; and that Sophia Cooke, 
another Methodist, who afterward became the 
wife of Samuel Bradburn, was the first who sug- 
gusted to Raikes the Sunday-school idea, and 
actually marched with him, at the head of his 
troop of ragged urchins, the first Sunday they 
were taken to the parish church." 

Thus we see that most of the great religious 
and philanthropic institutions which now em- 
body the moral power of Protestantism — the 
Bible societies, the missionary societies, and 
the Sunday-schools as an agency of the Church — 
sprung directly or indirectly from the influence 
of Methodism. Rev. Dr. Dobbin, of the Dublin 
University, himself a Churchman, said of the 
Bible, tract, and missionary societies, " Wesley 
started them all." 

How wonderfully have the pecuniary benevo- 
lences and philanthropies multiplied during this 
century. Take three of the classes of offerings 
which have attracted attention more frequently 
than any others, and have commanded the most 
respect. 



64 The Why of Methodism. 



The contributions of the American Churches 
during this century have been : 



And the receipts, from all sources, of the 

religious publication houses of the U. S. . . 132,129,636 



" Our age has come to be the age of missions. 
Philanthropic activity has reached a command- 
ing altitude of success. The world no longer 
laughs at it. Silvern orators no longer enter- 
tain gentle and perfumed hearers with predic- 
tions of the failure of missions. Missions have 
now no occasion to ask for the world's respect ; 
they command the world's admiration." * 

Probably, since 1850, more money has been 
raised by the Protestant Churches of Christen- 
dom for purely evangelizing purposes, aside 
from current church expenses and local chari- 
ities, than was raised for the same object in all 
the previous eighteen centuries. 

* Rev. Professor Austin Phelps in the Congregationalism 
March, 1886. 



For Home Missions 
" Foreign " 



$93,842,733 
74,117,188 



Total for three classes of agencies 



$300,089,557 



As to Its Influence. 



65 



As to the Contribution of Methodism to 
Theology. 

It should be noticed that before its advent the 
tendency was to speculation and the multiplica- 
tion of opinions; but under Wesley theology 
concentrated in the cross, and upon individual 
action at the foot of the cross. While in works 
of systematic theology Methodism has not been 
illustrious, nevertheless she has done a highly 
respectable work in that department, and has 
contributed improvements of inestimable value 
to the popular theology, especially to the practi- 
cal, working power of theology. On such a 
point as this it were better that another should 
speak. Professor Austin Phelps, D.D.,* of 
Andover, has generously and eloquently told 
the story of the influence of Methodism upon 
popular theology : 

" It has been a stout ally of those who have 
labored to eliminate from the popular notion of 
Christianity the fictions of a limited atonement 

* In the Congregationalism March 25, 1886. 

5 



66 The Why of Methodism. 



and the servitude of the human will. Before 
the advent of Methodism, these dogmas, to the 
majority of minds which came under their in- 
fluence, had made salvation an impracticable 
business. Theoretically, the popular mind could 
make nothing else of it. The speculation in 
which adroit minds essayed to untie the knot 
in which these dogmas had bound popular in- 
quiry had little weight in the pulpit. They 
were not useful there, because they could not be 
used. In many pulpits the preaching of repent- 
ance to unregenerate men had absolutely ceased. 
Logical minds holding those dogmas could not 
preach it. In private they said so, and in the 
pulpit they were dumb. To preach repentance 
as a duty to men who could not repent, and who 
until they did could have no assurance that the 
sacrifice of Christ had any concern with them, 
was an insult to the hearer and stultification 
to the preacher. Sensible men felt this and 
revolted. They would not sow seed on a marble 
quarry where nothing could grow. Rowland 
Hill once, on entering a certain church, was ad- 



As to Its Influence. 



67 



monished, ' We preach only to the elect here.' 
6 So will 1/ he replied, 6 if you will put a label 
on them.' 

"Methodism cut the knot. "Wesley and his 
associates denied the limitation of the atoning 
sacrifice by divine decree. They did it in no 
obscure or silken speech. They denounced the 
dogma with vehemence and scorn. They defied 
it as an invention of the devil. Indeed, through- 
out the controversy with Calvinism, Wesley was 
a savage. He spared neither foe nor friend, not 
even Whitefield. He gave us the iron hand bare 
of the velvet glove. But his unkempt ferocity 
of method achieved its object. It said what he 
meant, and hewed the way clear to the liberty 
of proclaiming a free salvation. That he and 
his successors flung broadcast. They preached 
it exultingly. They preached it like men free- 
born. It gave a ring of gladness to their min- 
istrations. The mountains skipped like rams, 
and the little hills like lambs, at the sound of 
their voices. 

" There was an electric spring to conquest in 



68 The Why of Methodism. 



the Gospel as they projected it upon the quiver- 
ing sensibilities of men, which made it seem to 
them a novelty. The immense assemblies in 
the fields, when they listened to the impassioned 
harangues of Whitefield and Wesley, seemed to 
themselves to hear the word of God for the first 
time. Then, for the first time, the offer of sal- 
vation meant something to them. Men and 
women who, all their lives, had been whining 
the confession that they were ' miserable sin- 
ners,' not believing a word of it, suddenly found 
out that it was a fact. Sermons, as they heard 
them, were full of personal allusions. Then 
Christ became to them a necessity ; and because 
a necessity, a reality. The sympathy of numbers 
redoubled the force of the convictions which 
sprang up in the soul of every one. Light 
shone reflected from a thousand mirrors. The 
day of Pentecost dawned again. 

" Human freedom in matters of religion came 
to the faith of the Methodist commonality more 
circuitously. Yet it came with scarcely less 
power of persuasion as a corollary from the min- 



As to Its Influence. 69 



istrations of the Methodist pulpit. Not as clear- 
cut dogma in theological science, such as it 
appears — and nowhere else so luminously — in 
the later Calvinism of New England, but as 
fact, the freedom of the human will has been 
built into Methodist theology as the people have 
conceived it from the beginning. Men -who 
have denied it as dogma have used it as fact. 
The Wesleys denied it, but John Wesley 
preached it in his forty thousand sermons, and 
Charles "Wesley sang it in hymns which have 
been heard around the globe. 

" This contradiction, which was no contradic- 
tion, grew out of the intensity of the faith of 
the early Methodists in individual responsibility. 
6 The living soul in moral solitude with God ' 
was the key-note of their preaching. Wesley 
used to say to his lay preachers : ■ Eemember 
you have but one thing to do — to bring the in- 
dividual soul to Christ.' 

"Now, no man can have his own soul set 
aflame w r ith a sense of the responsibility of the 
individual man to a personal God, of a guilty 



70 



The Why of Methodism. 



man to a holy God, of a redeemed man to a 
self-sacrificing God, and not preach the ability of 
man to obey God. No matter whether he be- 
lieves it as dogma or not, he will preach it as 
fact. He will preach it with a force of implica- 
tion which amounts to certainty. He may give 
to it one name, or another, or none. He may 
call it ' natural ability, 5 as the later Calvinism 
of New England does ; or ' gracious ability,' as 
Wesley did ; or no ability at all, as the elder 
Calvinism did ; he will so preach it that awak- 
ened hearers will take it in and trust it and use 
it as ability pure and simple. In a great spirit- 
ual reform it will become a power of spiritual 
life in the popular thinking. And this is what 
Methodism made of it. As the groundwork of 
individual responsibility, it has been sent home 
to the conscience by the Methodist pulpit with 
an intensity of conviction which has often swept 
every thing before it. 

" Robert South ey says that of all the hymns 
in the English language, 'none are more de- 
voutly committed to memory and more fre- 



As to Its Influence. 71 



quently repeated on death-beds than certain 
hymns by Charles Wesley.' But Methodist 
hymnology has done a broader service than that. 
"When the Methodist pulpit has proved the 
power of men to repent by constraining them 
to act it with tears of godly sorrow, then the 
great congregation has caught it up, and, as if 
moved by the baton of an angel in the sky, has 
echoed and re-echoed it in hymns which have 
borne up the faith of souls in it as on the wings 
of the wind. Where in the comparison are our 
thundering organs and our surpliced boys posing 
in dim cathedrals ; and where our puny quar- 
tettes performing before dumb assemblies ? 

" For the planting of great Christian truths 
deep in the heart of an awakened people, 
let us have John Wesley's tongue of fire, 
seconded by Charles Wesley's hymns floating 
heavenward on the twilight air from ten thou- 
sand Methodist voices. Under such conditions 
Methodism is inspired. To know what Meth- 
odist voices are under that inspiration, one must 
hear them. Mobs bellowing with infuriated 



72 The Why of Methodism. 

blood-thirst, which neither John Wesley's coal- 
black eye nor Whitefield's imperial voice could 
quell, have been known to turn and slink away 
when the truth was sung at them in Charles 
Wesley's hymns. Their ringleaders more than 
once broke down in tears and groans of remorse. 
They took the preacher by the hand, and went 
liis way with him, arm in arm, swearing by all 
that is holy that not a hair of his head should 
be touched. Thus was Luther's saying verified 
anew : 6 The devil can stand any thing but good 
music, and that makes him roar.' 

" In this method of transfusion from the faith 
in individual responsibility, faith in man's power 
to repent has been in part the soul of every 
great Methodist revival, from the gathering of 
sixty thousand souls at Moorfields down to the 
last autumnal camp-meeting in the forests of 
Maine. Partly by the force of this Methodist 
intensity in the use of it, and partly by its own 
good sense, it has made its way as a living fact 
into the heart of churches whose standards to this 
day disown it as a dogma of speculative belief, 



As to Its Influence. 



73 



" This is a magnificent service, however imper- 
fect and illogical, to the Church universal. No 
other truth so vital to spiritual religion has had 
so painful a birth as this of human freedom in 
the act of repentance. Augustine and his prede- 
cessors paganized Christianity in this respect for 
a thousand years. The reformers left the truth 
substantially as they found it. Calvinism, as de- 
fined in the Genevan and Scotch theologies, and 
in the Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican 
Church as well, was dead fatalism. The popular 
mind could not logically get any thing better 
from it. The offer of salvation, loaded with the 
doctrine of inability, meant no more to multi- 
tudes of hearers than 'Selah' did in the old 
editions of the Psalms. The struggles of the 
Calvinistic mind to rid itself of the incubus have 
not been a brilliant success. Ability to obey 
God has been sometimes denied and affirmed in 
the same creed. Scores of sermons have made 
a shuttlecock of it. Forth and back and forth 
again it has been knocked about, till it has 
fallen to the ground through sheer exhaustion 



74 The Why of Methodism. 



in the hand which has held the battledore. 
Never a man has been the wiser. 

" We have reason to be grateful to any em- 
bodiment of Christian thought or enterprise 
which has helped us ever so infirmly to rescue 
such a truth from its tribulations, and restore it 
to its place as a power of spiritual life. The 
most triumphant way of proving any doctrine 
involved in human duty is to use it. Persuade 
men to act it oat by doing their duty. Make 
it thus prove itself as fact, and time will take 
care of it as dogma. This Methodism has done 
for the doctrine of human freedom through the 
whole of her romantic history." 

Methodism's Contkibtttton to Morals. 

As to the effect of the high moral standard 
raised by Methodism, it must be judged in the 
light of the morals of those times compared 
with those of the present. It is not easy to 
conceive the grossness of life then allowed in 
the Church of England, in many of the Non- 
conformist churches of that country, and in this 



As to Its Influence. 



75 



country also. John Wesley would not tolerate 
such living among the members of his societies. 
He spoke with an awful plainness on the subject, 
and his Methodist revival became a reforma- 
tion. 

What has been the effect ? The standard of 
Christian character necessary to membership in 
Protestant churches is incalculably higher than 
one hundred and fifty years ago, and is more 
rigidly enforced. Public morals have also been 
elevated. 

The elevating influence of Methodism upon 
morals was very soon perceptible in English so- 
ciety. More than any other religious force then 
known it addressed itself to the masses ; for its 
itinerant evangelists, long without sanctuaries, 
preached by way-sides and in open fields, and 
their earnest, direct appeals were well adapted to 
impress the hearts of the assembled multitudes. 

Mr. Lecky says : " From about the middle of 
the eighteenth century are forming spirit was 
once more abroad, and a steady movement of 
moral ascent may be detected. The influence of 



76 The "Why of Methodism. 

Pitt in politics, and the influence of Wesley and 
his followers in religion, were the earliest and 
most important agencies in effecting it. . . . The 
tone of thought and feeling was changed. . . . 
The standard of political honor was perceptibly 
raised. . . . Although the career of the elder Pitt, 
and the splendid victories by land and sea that 
were won during his ministry, form unquestion- 
ably the most dazzling episodes in the reign of 
George II., they must yield, I think, in real 
importance, to that religious revolution which 
shortly before had been begun in England by 
the preaching of the Wesleys and of White- 
field." 

Among the ulterior advantages of the Wes- 
leyan reformation, Mr. Leaky cites its influence 
in preserving the English nation from the 
French revolutionizing tendencies of that try- 
ing period. He says : " England, on the whole, 
escaped the contagion. Many causes conspired 
to save her, but among them a prominent place 
must, I believe, be given to the new and vehe- 
ment religious enthusiasm which was at that 



As to Its Influence. 77 



very time passing through the middle and 
lower classes of the people, which had enlisted 
in its service a large proportion of the wilder 
and more impetuous reformers, and which re- 
coiled with horror from the anti-Christian 
tenets that were associated with the Revolution 
in France." 

The Contribution of Methodism to the Re- 
ligious Life of the World. 

Tyerman* says: "Who will deny, for in- 
stance, that Methodism has exercised a potent 
and beneficial influence upon other Churches ? 
Episcopal, Presbyterian, Independent, and Bap- 
tist Churches have all been largely indebted to 
Methodism, either directly or indirectly, for 
many of the best ministers and agents they have 
ever had. It is a remarkable fact that, during 
Wesley's life time, of the 690 men who acted 
under him 249 relinquished the itinerant min- 
istry. These 249 retirers included not a few of 
the most intelligent, energetic, pious, and useful 
* In his Life of Wesley, vol. i, p. 10. 



78 The Why of Methodism. 



preachers that Wesley had. Some left him on 
the ground of health; others began business, 
because as itinerant preachers they were unable 
to support their wives and families ; but a large 
proportion became ordained ministers in other 
churches. In some instances the labors of these 
men and their brother Methodists led to mar- 
velous results." 

All through our history, in this country, we 
have been furnishing ministers to other denom- 
inations. It was so before 1800, as the fathers 
have testified, and it is still going on. But for 
Methodism, these Churches would have seriously 
suffered for the want of a supply of ministers. 
Some of our people are sensitive because so 
many able ministers go from us to the pulpits 
of other religious bodies. Rather than that, 
and in no spirit of vain exultation, we should 
rejoice that we have been able to render this 
service to the Church universal, sending them 
numerous ministers, and members too. It is to 
be hoped that we may be able to continue this 
liberal contribution to the great common cause 



As to Its Influence. 79 



of religion in the future, as in the past. It is 
no small credit to us to do this, while at the 
same time we fill up our rapidly extending 
ranks. It takes 700 to 800 new recruits every 
year to supply our ministerial work. It is to be 
hoped that the fire will continue to burn on our 
altars, and that the spirit of testimony will 
thrust out many preachers into the field. 

A committee reporting to the General As- 
sembly of the Presbyterian Church, in 1884, 
lamenting the lack of ministers for the supply 
of their churches, said : " We hear sometimes 
expressions of alarm at the great number of 
ministers coming into our Church from sister 
denominations. The Board calls attention to 
the fact that, but for these sources of supply, 
the net increase of our ministry last year would 
have been only 11, against an increase of 99 
churches. What should we have done for the 
supply of these new churches but for the 64 
borrowed ministers? . . . The supply of minis- 
ters must be increased, or disaster is near." * 
* Minutes of the General Assembly, 1884, p. 85. 



80 The Why of Methodism. 



It may be felt by some that I have ascribed 
too much to Methodism, giving her more credit 
for influencing the general Church than she is 
entitled to. But what I have said is the consen- 
sus of the best authorities in secular and ecclesi- 
astical circles — parties impartial, standing whol- 
ly outside of Methodism. I will quote some of 
them. 

A distinguished English writer, a layman of 
the Church of England (Isaac Taylor), has said 
of Methodism : " That great religious movement 
has, immediately or remotely, so given an im- 
pulse to Christian feeling and profession on all 
sides that it has come to present itself as the 
starting-point of our modern religious history ; 
that the field-preaching of Wesley and White- 
field in 1739 was the event whence the religious 
epoch, now current, must date its commence- 
ment ; that back to the events of that time we 
look, necessarily, as often as we seek to trace to 
its source whatever is most characteristic of the 
present time ; and that yet this is not all, for 
the Methodism of the past age points forward 



As to Its Influence. 81 



to the next coming development of the powers 
of the Gospel." The same writer again says 
that " many enlightened adherents of the Epis- 
copal Church have not hesitated to acknowl- 
edge that it owes to Methodism, in great part, 
the modern revival of its energies." 

He makes the same remark concerning the 
influence of Methodism on other Protestant 
Churches : " By the new life which Methodism 
has diffused on all sides, it has preserved from 
extinction, and has reanimated, the languishing 
non-conformity of the last century, which, just 
at the time of the Methodistic revival, was rap- 
idly in course to be found nowhere but in 
books." 

The New York Examiner (Baptist) said of 
Methodism that it was " God's appointed instru- 
mentality for arousing the English people from 
the slumbers of a dead formalism, and impart- 
ing to millions of our race in all lands the spirit 
of vital Christianity." 

Of its influence in promoting Christian 

union, the Christian Examiner (Unitarian) said : 
6 



82 The Why of Methodism. 



" Methodism has had a grand mission to fulfill 
in modern Christendom ; a mission of medita- 
tion between differing sects, on the one hand, 
and between an exclusive Church and a neg- 
lected world on the other. And there is a 
moral majesty in the firm and sure tread with 
which it has marched to the accomplishment of 
its work." 

Mr. Lecky said of the Wesley an movement 
that " it incalculably increased the efficiency of 
almost every religious body;" that "it has 
been more or less felt by every Protestant com- 
munity speaking the English tongue ; and that 
Wesley has had a wider constructive influence 
in the sphere of practical religion than any 
other man who has appeared since the sixteenth 
century ; " that " it also exercised a profound 
and lasting influence upon the spirit of the Es- 
tablished Church, upon the amount and distribu- 
tion of the moral forces of the nation, and even 
upon the course of its political history.". 

A writer in the Bibliotheca Sacra (in Janu- 
ary, 1864) said, "that something of vital Chris- 



As to Its Influence. 83 



tianity exists among professed believers of 
every name ; that the doctrine of justification 
by faith is generally understood and preached ; 
that we are not blind Pharisees or dead formal- 
ists, or practical Socinians and deists ; we may 
trace the cause, in great part (we cannot tell 
how largely), to the Holy Club of Oxford Meth- 
odists." 

Kev. Nehemiah Adams, D.D., in his Pitt 
Street Chapel Lectures (p. 155), speaking of the 
Wesleys and Methodism, acknowledged "the 
depths of Divine wisdom in allowing those 
mighty men to become what they have become 
in England and elsewhere, a great stimulant 
force in Christendom. They are in some re- 
spects the flying artillery in the sacramental 
host. What denomination can show greater 
exploits, more versatile service, and larger con- 
quests ? " 

At the unveiling of the tablet in Westmin- 
ster Abbey, in 1876. to the memory of John 
and Charles Wesley, Dean Stanley said, " They 
preached those great effects w T hich have never 



84 The Why of Methodism. 



since died out in English Christendom." On 
another occasion this eloquent Broad Church- 
man said, " The Methodist movement in both 
its branches, Arminian and Calvinistic, has 
molded the spiritual character of the English- 
speaking Protestantism of the world." 

A writer in the North British Review (1847), 
referring to the time when Methodism arose, 
said : " The time was near at hand when the 
measure of iniquity was full to the very brim, 
and the land was become reprobate, blighted, 
and accursed by its enormities, and scathed and 
rejected of God. This awful doom was, how- 
ever, averted, and the revival of religion de- 
nominated Methodism was the principal means 
at once of saving the country from so great a 
calamity, and of introducing the brightest era in 
British history." 

Sir Launcelot Shadwell, late Vice-Chancellor 
of England, said : " It is my firm belief that 
to the Wesleyan body we are indebted for a 
large proportion of the religious feeling which 
exists among the general body of the conimu- 



As to Its Influence. 85 



nity, not only of this country, but throughout a 
great portion of the civilized world besides." 

Rev. Philip Schaff, D.D.* said : " Method- 
ism is the youngest, and yet numerically the 
strongest, of the large Protestant bodies in 
America. It is the outcome of the great Anglo- 
American revival — conducted by John Wesley, 
the organizer ; Charles Wesley, the hymiiist ; 
and George Whitefield, the evangelist — of the 
religious movement of the eighteenth century, 
which otherwise figures in Church history as a 
barren century of infidelity and revolution. . . . 
It has made the Arminian creed a converting 
agency, and given it practical power such as it 
never had before," etc. 

Rev. Dr. Tyng, at the Evangelical Alliance 
meeting held in London, said : " I came from a 
land where you might as well forget the proud 
oaks that tower in our forests, the glowing capital 
we have erected in the center of our hills, or the 
principles of truth and liberty we endeavor to 

* In an address upon " Religion in America," before the 
meeting of the Evangelical Alliance, held in Basle, in 1879. 



86 



The Why of Methodism. 



disseminate, as to forget the influence of Meth- 
odism and the benefits we have secured thereby." 

Rev. Robert Baird, D.D., said : " Methodism 
is the most powerful element in the religious 
prosperity of the United States, as well as one 
of the firmest pillars of our civil and religious 
institutions." 

A Presbyterian clergyman of great promi- 
nence recently said : " I trust Methodism will 
continue to teach us that it is possible to make 
the rich and poor realize and illustrate religious 
companionship and equality." 

The great historian of our country, Hon. 
George Bancroft, saj^s: "The Methodists were 
the pioneers of religion ; the breath of liberty 
has wafted their messages to the masses of the 
people, encouraged them to collect, white and 
black, in church or green wood, for council in 
divine love and the full assurance of faith, and 
carried their consolations and songs and prayers 
to the farthest cabins of the wilderness." 

The late Archbishop Spaulding said: "The 
only sect that Roman Catholicism fears is or- 



As to Its Influence. 



87 



ganized Methodism, and this fear is based upon 
its aggressive zeal and its hearty and simple 
presentation of truth to the common people, 
without making any preposterous claims to 
apostolic successorship or offensive assertion of 
being the Church. I greatly fear the influ- 
ence of Methodism upon the second and third 
generations of imported Romanists, provided 
a free-school system should be enforced ; and 
the Methodists, being the most numerous, and 
favoring the system, increases my solicitude." * 
A writer in the Christian Quarterly, on " Our 
Representative Religions," says : " On the whole, 
the Methodist Church will be seen to be a 
great organization, moving on the world for defi- 
nite and powerful results, striking where there 
is most to be done. . . . It converts for all the 
other Churches ; for, of the products of an or- 
dinary Methodist revival, some go to the Pres- 
byterian, some to the Baptist, and some to the 
Episcopalian and other Churches. And of those 

* In a conversation with Rev. J. M. King, D.D. Methodist 
Centennial Volume, 1884, p. 2*78. 



88 The Why of Methodism. 



who unite with the Methodist Church, includ- 
ing all classes of temperaments, many subse- 
quently leave it for others, because constitution- 
ally not adapted to be Methodists. But not- 
withstanding it supplies all other Churches, it 
still keeps itself larger than any of the rest, and 
increases at a faster rate." 

Prof. Austin Phelps, D.D., said : " The rise of 
Methodism was the birth of a spiritual reform 
of which all Christian denominations in Great 
Britain and America were in desperate need. 
. . . The chief power in saving to the future 
the old Church of Cranmer and Ridley was the 
Methodist revival. . . . English Christianity 
has never lost the elements of spiritual life 
which Methodism, by direct reproof and by 
the power of contrast, then put into it. . . . 
It was a re-enforcement of apostolic Christian- 
ity, also, in every other Christian denomina- 
tion in the Miglish-speaking nations and colo- 
nies. We have all felt the throb of its pulsa- 
tions. It has been what new blood is to falling 
dynasties and decadent races.' 5 



THE WHY, 

AS TO ITS POLITY. 



For as the body is one, and hath many 
members, and all the members of that one 
body, being many, are one body: so also is 
Christ. . . . 

For the body is not one member, but 
many. . . . 

But now are they many members, yet but 
one body. . . . 

Now ye are the body of Christ, and mem- 
bers in particular.— l Cor. 12. 12-27. 



As to Its Polity. 



91 



IV. 

As to Its Polity, Methodism is Kooted in 
the Most Vital Principle, both of Race 
Life and of the Spiritual Kingdom. 

One of the most common objections to Meth- 
odism is its strong polity ; its connectionalism, 
as opposed to independency ; its itinerancy, as 
opposed to a settled pastorate ; and the assign- 
ment of pastors by the Bishop, rather than by 
the choice of the people. I propose to show 
that these peculiarities grew out of one funda- 
mental principle upon which the polity of 
Methodism is predicated. 

Years ago, some Frenchmen, not familiar 
with the teachings of the Bible, supposed they 
had discovered a new truth in regard to the 
human race. Availing themselves of the facil- 
ity which their language affords for coining 
terms to express scientific and philosophical 



92 The Why of Methodism. 



ideas, they invented the word solidarite, as the 
vehicle of their new thought. Slightly Angli- 
cizing it, we have the word solidarity. For this 
word, says Trench, " we are indebted to the 
French communists," who use it to " signify a 
community in gain or loss, in honor or dis- 
honor, a being (so to speak) all in the same bot- 
tom." Trench adds, this term is u so conven- 
ient that it will be in vain to struggle against 
its reception among us." Webster defines it, 
"an entire union or consolidation of interests 
and responsibilities ; fellowship." 

By this term is meant that individuals are not 
isolated personalities, independent of each other, 
like trees standing separately in a field, but like 
branches on a common stock or buds on a com- 
mon bough. The same life-sap flows through 
them all ; so that, if the life of the tree is at- 
tacked anywhere — in its root, its trunk, its 
limbs — all the buds feel it. Tet each bud has a 
life of its own, and develops its own stalk, 
leaves, blossom, fruit. Each bud and leaf is 
necessary to the life and growth of the tree; 



As to Its Polity. 



93 



its breathing-places — inhaling the oxygen, and 
bringing this invigorating influence into the life 
of the tree. So mutual and all-pervasive are 
these relations between the boughs, buds, leaves, 
and trunk, that if either fails to perform its 
functions the tree will suffer. So it is with 
individual men in the great tree of mankind. 
None liveth to himself alone, or dieth to him- 
self alone. If one suffers, all suffer. If the 
life of mankind becomes diseased, individual 
men are also affected, and whatever improves 
the life of the race improves the individual 
members of the race. Such is the common life- 
connection of humanity. It is a solid, a unit. 
As individuals, we are parts of a whole, with 
which we are bound in relations of mutual 
dependence and service. "We have a common 
race life. This is what the term solidarity 
means. 

This term contains no new principle, but one 
as old as Christianity, which long ago declared 
that God "made of one blood all nations of 
men." The golden rule is predicated upon this 



94: The Wry of Methodism. 



great underlying race truth. So also the sec- 
ond great commandment. The clearest Chris- 
tian expression of this truth is in the lan- 
guage of St. Paul — "We are members one 
of another." " The body is one, and hath 
many members, and all the members of 
that one body, being many, are one body." 
This truth is very prominent in Paul's 
epistles. 

This principle is one of the broadest and 
most fundamental of all known truths. 

It sustains a vital relation to the human 

RACE. 

The common race life is dependent upon it 

It stands opposed to artificial divisions of the 
human family into castes, to aristocratic exclu-^ 
siveness, to slavery, war, and every thing that 
estranges nations and communities. It con- 
demns all wrongs against our fellows, for an 
evil done to one is a wound inflicted upon the 
race. The virus enters into its common life. 
This principle is the basis of mutual assistance. 



As to Its Polity. 



95 



It was a profound remark of Sir Walter Scott, 
that, if the element of sympathy should die out 
of the human heart, the race could not protract 
its existence through another generation. Phil- 
anthropy, moral and social reforms, educational 
movements for the masses, and all charities, 
have their origin in this principle. It lies at 
the foundation of all moral relations and duties 
in the social sphere. Impure acts, words, and 
examples taint the moral life of the race, send- 
ing their pernicious influence through large cir- 
cles and for many generations. 

If the principle under consideration is so im- 
portant, as regards the common life of the race, 
it ought also to be recognized in the civil 
polities of the nations. 

The preamble of the Massachusetts Constitu- 
tion declares : 

" The body politic is formed by a voluntary 
association of individuals ; it is a social compact, 
by which the whole people covenant with each 
citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, 



96 



The Why of Methodism. 



that all shall be governed by certain laws for the 
common good." 

Natural rights are surrendered when anv 
government is formed, in order to promote the 
greater good of the whole. This principle links 
us in a common race life. 

All true progress in government is an approxi- 
mation toward the perfect recognition of the 
principle that we are " members one of another." 
In the earlier and untutored periods of national 
life, it was only slightly recognized. It is the 
ideal of the periods of better development and 
fuller manhood. 

In the civil polities of the nations there have 
been two extremes — Absolutism and Democ- 
racy — both of which ignore this truth. Some 
governments are of a mixed character, having 
features in common with one of these extremes, 
and perhaps some resemblance to both. This is 
especially true of provisional governments. 

In absolute government, power centers in the 
head — king or emperor — not conferred accord- 
ing to constitutional provisions, but assumed, or 



As to Its Polity. 



97 



inherited. No power rises from the people to 
the head ; but starting from the head it de- 
scends to the people. Such has been the gov- 
ernment of Mohammedan and pagan lands, and, 
until recent centuries, of almost all Europe also. 
It was the only thing practicable in the earlier 
periods of the race. The Mosaic economy pro- 
vided some limitations of this absolutism in 
advance of any thing that appeared in the pre- 
Christian ages. In limited monarchies, the 
sovereign power is curtailed by constitutional 
restrictions ; and every constitutional limitation 
is an expression, more or less, of the principle 
that we are "members one of another." The 
British Magna Charta, a notable guarantee of 
popular rights against absolutism, is a conspicu- 
ous illustration ; and the principles embodied 
six centuries and a half ago, in that memorable 
document, the basis of English liberties, have 
been widely expanded and applied in the suc- 
cessive centuries. The movement has been a 
progressive abridgement of absolute prerogative 

among people of almost every clime and land. 
7 



98 The Why of Methodism. 



The other extreme is pure democracy. To 
some extent this form of government recognizes 
the principle that we are "members one of 
another," but only in an inchoate and unorgan- 
ized 'way, for it is a government wholly by the 
people. All business being transacted in an 
assembly of the whole people, the power rests 
wholly in their hands, and is distributed among 
individuals. Having no cohesion, and no center 
of power, democracies soon fall in pieces. How 
different from the figure employed in the New 
Testament in setting forth the principle we are 
discussing — the human body, with its various 
members, the vital organs, etc. These portions 
are not disconnected and separate, like the indi- 
vidual people in a pure democracy, but organ- 
ized, and controlled by a central head. The 
blood is diffused from the heart through all the 
extremities, and then returns to the heart. Each 
member has its appropriate functions, but there 
are checks and counter-checks all through the 
body. Is o such things can be claimed for a pure 
democracy; it is only a collection of individu- 



As to Its Polity. 99 



alities, discordant and disintegrating. Such is 
the unquestioned verdict of history. 

But what form of civil government most fully 
recognizes the principle under consideration, so 
strikingly illustrated by the figure of the human 
body? Ans. A republican government like 
that of the United States. 

In the republican government of the United 
States the power resides principally in the peo- 
ple. The popular phrase of President Lincoln, 
so often quoted with encomium, "A govern- 
ment of the people, for the people, and by the 
people," is not quite correct. The Republic of 
the United States is a government of the people, 
for the people, hy representatives of the people. 

Originating with the people, the power rises 
through distinct lines of ascent to the Congress 
and the President, and then, through enactments 
and appointees to office, returns again to the 
people. To specify : we have first governors, 
State legislatures, representatives in Congress, 
and a president and vice-president elected by 
the people. Then, we have United States sena- 



100 The "Why of Methodism. 



tors elected by the legislatures. The power, 
starting with the people, concentrates in Con- 
gress and the president, the federal head of the 
government of the United States. From this 
point the power returns again to the people, by 
the members of the cabinet, the judges of the Su- 
preme Court and of the District Courts, the 
United States marshals, the collectors of ports, 
the officers of the revenue, the postmasters, 
and the army and navy officers — all appointed 
by the president and Congress, or by the heads 
of departments whom they have appointed. 
Along all the way of ascent and descent there 
are checks and counter-checks, in the form of 
legal or constitutional limitations. Some links 
may be wanting, but they are being gradually 
supplied by national and State legislation, year 
by year. No other government so fully meets 
the conditions of St. Paul's illustration. 

This Principle is Fundamental to the Church. 

It is the life principle of the Church. It is 
opposed to caste and selfish exclusiveness in the 



As to Its Polity. 101 



Church. If true to the spirit of her Founder, 
no invidious distinctions will be recognized. It 
is also opposed to the spirit of excessive denomi- 
nationalism and exclusive sectarianism. The 
narrow assumption sometimes indulged by con- 
ceited bigots, that their denomination is the 
Church of Christ, is a gross offense. To exclude 
from the Lord's table Christian men and women 
because they have not been baptized according 
to a specific denominational form is also an 
offense to the body of Christ. 

This principle is also opposed to schisms. 
Different denominations do not necessarily im- 
ply schisms. The New Testament doctrine of 
schism is heart-division among Christians, and 
that may exist in the same denomination, and in 
a local church or society, without any open 
rupture. 

This principle is the basis of Christian fellow- 
ship ; it sweetens the communion of saints ; it 
begets kindly attention to those united with us 
in Christ; it hallows and makes precious our 
Church relations ; and it makes the Church a 



102 The Why of Methodism. 

comfort and a blessing. It is the basis of mu- 
tual forbearance, mutual esteem, mutual joys and 
sorrows. It prompts to kindly interest in those 
members of Christ's body who are sick, or be- 
reaved, or unfortunate. It is the basis of mutual 
burden-bearing in the Church, prompting us to 
cheerfully share the expenses, the labors, the 
offices, and responsibilities of the Church. It is 
also the basis of our joint-heirship with Christ. 
If we would jointly inherit, we must be joint 
members in the same body. 

A principle so fundamental to the spiritual 
life should be recognized in the politics of 
Churches. If civil polities should be founded 
upon it, so also should ecclesiastical polities. 

In Church government there are two ex- 
tremes, corresponding to absolutism and democ- 
racy in civil government. Ecclesiastical abso- 
lutism is represented by the Church of Rome. 
In that Church the power is lodged in the 
pope, from whom it descends through cardi- 
nals, archbishops, bishops, and priests to the 



As to Its Polity. 103 



people ; but no power rises from the people to 
any priest, bishop, or any other official. 

The Churches of the Congregational polity, 
Baptists, Unitarians, Universalists, and largely, 
also, the Presbyterians, correspond to the de- 
mocracy of civil government. In respect to 
polity, there is but little difference among them. 
They are pure democracies. The Presbyterians 
vary a little, and but little. The orthodox Con- 
gregational denomination in the United States 
is not one national Church, but an aggregate of 
Churches. Their State associations are asso- 
ciations of Congregational Churches. The same 
thing is true of the Baptists, Unitarians, etc. 
Each local body is a church in the fullest sense, 
holding no organic connection with any other 
local church — only brotherly relations. Each 
local church holds the supreme power of legis- 
lation and discipline within itself. No other 
church or collection of churches, even of the 
same denomination, can do any thing more than 
give advice. Councils called for settling and 
dismissing ministers are only advisory, and their 



104 The Why of Methodism. 



advice may be disregarded without any ecclesi- 
astical penalty. It would, however, make them 
liable to be considered as wanting in proper re- 
spect for sister churches — a violation of the 
principles of the communion of churches, not a 
question of ecclesiastical law, but of Christian 
courtesy. 

In these churches the pastor has absolutely 
no power. If he presides at a church meeting, 
it is not by right, but by courtesy. Any layman 
can as well preside, and often does preside, 
being chosen instead of the pastor. Even in 
case of discipline the pastor has no power. He 
can only act an advisory part, like any other 
member. As local churches, they are a collec- 
tion of individuals, with no organic unity, no 
cementing bond, no conserving link. Churches 
thus constituted fail to meet the conditions of 
the figure used by St. Paul — the human body — 
for there is no union of individual members in 
one common system. 

Another element of weakness in churches of 
the Congregational polity is that the church 



As to Its Polity. 105 



divides its voice with the congregation or parish. 
Said Rev. Dr. Hawes,* of Hartford : 

" These two bodies are in some respects united 
and one, but in others are distinct, independent 
corporations. In the call and settlement of a 
minister, which is the great business they have 
to transact together, each exerts a separate and 
uncontrolled agency. And yet the concurrence 
of each is indispensable to the validity of their 
respective acts. The church has no power to 
place a minister over the congregation ; nor has 
the congregation power to place a minister over 
the church. In^ effecting the settlement of a 
pastor, the concurrent voice of the church and 
society is essential." 

Under such a system the power, instead of 
being concentrated, is scattered. The congre- 
gation can withhold its concurrence, as has often 
been the case, and so compel the church to 
elect whom it chooses as its pastor. So much 
for the boasted " free election of the brethren." 
The power to defeat the church is in the 
* Tribute to the Memory of the Pilgrims, p. 58. 



106 The Why of Methodism. 



Lands of irreligious men not members of the 
church. 

Furthermore, this society, a corporation dis- 
tinct from the church, holds all the church 
property, determines the salary of the pastor, 
etc., and is responsible by law for the raising 
and paying of the salary. The church, there- 
fore, sustains a subordinate and dependent part 
in this important business. So far has this 
matter been carried that the question has some- 
times been discussed,* whether the church 
should have the precedence of the society, or 
the society the precedence of the church. 

We come now to consider, 

How the Principle under Consideration 
Enters into the Polity of Methodism. 

1. As to its general organic features. 

We have seen that the denominations of the 
Congregational polity are aggregates of denom- 
inational individualities ; but the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church is a denominational unit. It is 

* Professor Upham, Ratio Discipline. 



As to Its Polity. 107 



not a local society, but it comprises all the local 
societies throughout the United States, Europe, 
Asia, Africa, wherever it has ministers and so- 
cieties. The Methodist Episcopal Church has 
fifteen mission Conferences outside of the 
United States : six in Europe, one in Africa, 
one in Mexico, one in South America, one in 
Japan, two in India, and three in China. It 
takes all her members, all over the world, to 
make one Church. Each local body is a society 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. These 
societies are linked together by connectional 
bonds. Under the presiding elder, from twenty 
to sixty or more societies are united in a district, 
through which that official travels four times 
each year. Several of these presiding elders' 
districts are united in one Annual Conference, 
and one hundred and twenty of these Annual 
Conferences are under one General Conference. 
The Methodist Episcopal Church is not a con- 
federacy of one hundred and twenty Annual 
Conferences, not a mere association of, say, 
twenty thousand societies. It is a single body 



108 The Why of Methodism. 



of which these societies and Conferences are com- 
ponent parts, and all " members one of another." 

This bond of connection is carried out by 
bishops, who, as general superintendents, travel 
through the whole Church, administering its 
affairs, and sustaining the same relation to every 
member; by four hundred and ninety -eight 
presiding elders, traveling through their dis- 
tricts ; by pastors, liable to be appointed to any 
society; by the Book Concern's books and 
periodicals ; by the great benevolent societies 
and their secretaries, reaching out into the 
whole body. The bishops have ever been a 
strong bond of union to the Church. They are 
not confined to any diocese. As general super- 
intendents, they travel every-where, and ac- 
quaint themselves with the needs of every por- 
tion of the Church. Their fields of labor are 
interchanging every year, first in one section, 
then in another, so that each one belongs to the 
whole Church. Each bishop is strictly amen- 
able to the General Conference for his conduct 
and his administration ; and every minister and 



As to Its Polity. 



109 



every lay member lias a right to bring any 
bishop to trial before the General Conference. 
Such is the connectional unity of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 

But let us look* a little further. There are 
many persons who think our Church polity is 
very undemocratic. Undemocratic it is, in 
some respects, and none the worse for that, but 
rather better ; for a pure democracy is a very 
weak government, whether in state or Church. 

Our nation is not, as we have already noticed, 
a democracy, but a republic, in which the demo- 
cratic principle is largely incorporated, but sup- 
plemented by the representative and the federal 
principle, to which it is indebted for whatever 
strength and efficiency it possesses. The doc- 
trine of State rights or State sovereignty, out of 
which the nullification heresy and our late civil 
war sprang, directly antagonizes the federal 
principle, and logically leads into the weakness 
and disintegration of an irresponsible democ- 
racy. Our best statesmen are fully impressed 
with this truth, and the necessity of guarding 



110 The Why of Methodism. 

and strengthening the federal element in the 
civil polity of the republic. Out of what did 
the federal element in the government of the 
United States spring? Out of the necessity of 
a stronger government than the Confederation 
which preceded it. Under that, public affairs 
were in a condition bordering upon chaos. The 
imperiled state of the country was viewed with 
alarm by the best and wisest patriots who had 
struggled with the issues of the Revolution. 
The great speech of Hon. Edmund Randolph, 
of Virginia, in the convention that framed the 
Constitution, disclosed the weaknesses and de- 
fects of a government without a federal bond, 
and the elements of power which it imparts. 
A federal bond implies a concentration of 
power in a responsible center. Men may say 
that they do not believe in centralization of 
power. But there is no power without concen- 
tration. All nature and common life are full 
of illustrations of the fact. 

Does any persist in saying that the govern- 
ment of the Methodist Episcopal Church is 



As to Its Polity. 



Ill 



very unlike the government of the United 
States ? If we look closely, we shall see that 
there is no Church polity which more nearly 
corresponds to that of the United States govern- 
ment than our own. In the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, the Annual Conferences correspond 
very largely, though not fully, to the State legis- 
latures, and the General Conference corresponds 
to Congress. The Annual Conference is com- 
posed of ministers, and the General Conference, 
the legislative body of the Church, of ministers 
and laymen. The analogy between our Annual 
Conferences and the State legislatures fails at 
some points ; but a similar defect or discrepancy 
may be seen in all the subordinate associations, 
conferences, presbyteries, or other local bodies 
of all the religions denominations, and they are 
believed to be peculiar to the necessities of ec- 
clesiastical life, which require less local legisla- 
tion than the State. 

In the Methodist Episcopal Church, the power 
starts from the laity. No man can become an 
exhorter unless first recommended by the laity, 



112 The Why of Methodism. 



either the class of which he is a member, or 
the leaders and stewards' meeting. No man is 
licensed to preach unless first recommended 
by the leaders and stewards' meeting, which is 
composed wholly of laymen, except the pastor, 
who presides ; and then the candidate must re- 
ceive the votes of the Quarterly Conference, 
which is seldom composed of more than one 
minister, and from ten to thirty laymen. If 
this man, thus constituted a local preacher, de- 
sires to become an itinerant preacher or a mem- 
ber of an Annual Conference, he must come a 
fourth time before the laity. The Quarterly 
Conference, composed, as we have seen, of lay- 
men, must recommend him to the Annual Con- 
ference. He can reach the door of the Annual 
Conference in no other way. Thus, among us, 
the laity decide the question who shall be the min- 
isters. Among the Congregationalists and the 
Baptists, the Association, composed wholly of 
ministers, grants licenses to preach ; among the 
Presbyterians, the presbytery, composed equally 
of ministers and elders — the latter, laymen. 



As to Its Polity. 113 



While with us the pastoral office is reached 
by four successive steps, each of which is 
watched over by the laity and must be sanc- 
tioned by their formally expressed will, with 
churches of the Congregational polity the laity 
are not consulted at all, until the question comes 
up as to whether a given minister, who has been 
made a minister independently of them, shall be 
their pastor. Deny these churches the privi- 
lege of electing a pastor and they would be in 
a condition pitiably helpless, vastly inferior to 
that of our churches. With us the laity speak 
four times before the laity with them speak 
once. Besides, our churches are uniformly con- 
sulted in the selection of their pastors ; and 
yet we are told that our churches have no 
voice in electing ministers. But Congregational 
churches are never consulted at all until they 
come to settle a minister. 

Next, the ministers who compose the Annual 

Conferences every four years elect ministerial 

delegates to the General Conference, just as our 

legislatures elect the senators in Congress. At 
8 



114: The Why of Methodism. 



the same time, an Electoral Conference of lay- 
men, made up of delegates chosen by the Quar- 
terly Conferences, meets and elects lay delegates 
to the General Conference. The General Confer- 
ence, thus constituted, elects the bishops. Thus 
we see the power, starting with the people, ris- 
ing up through several gradations, with checks 
and counter-checks, to the General Conference. 
But it should be remembered that the bishops 
are not above the General Conference, but sub- 
ject to it. 

The General Conference is the head from 
which the power returns again to the people. 
First, the General Conference elects the bish- 
ops, and gives them all their power. They can 
do only what the General Conference says, and 
they are amenable to the General Conference. 
Their conduct and administration are scrutin- 
ized, censured, or approved every four years. 
The General Conference also elects the editors, 
and the secretaries of the Missionary, Sunday- 
School, Tract, Church Extension, and Freed- 
men's Aid Societies, who, with the bishop?, 



As to Its Polity. 115 



come in contact with the people of every sec- 
tion of the Church. The bishops appoint the 
presiding elders, who visit and superintend the 
twenty, thirty, and sixty societies of their dis- 
tricts, and, in connection with the bishops, 
arrange and fix the appointments of the preach- 
ers. The preachers appoint the class-leaders, 
and nominate the stewards and trustees.* Thus 
we see that the power which originates with 
the people rises through successive gradations, 
with checks and counter-checks, to the General 
Conference, from which it returns to the peo- 
ple, just as in the government of the United 
States the power travels from the people up- 
ward to the Congress and president, and re- 
turns again to the people. As in the national 
government there are yet some missing links in 

* In several States the laity alone nominate and elect trust- 
ees. In New York, all who statedly contribute to the sup- 
port of the churches (even though uot Church members), are 
entitled to take part in the election of trustees. And this is in 
accordance with our Discipline, which provides that whenever 
any State specifies any particular method of electing trustees 
our societies must conform to it. 



116 The Why of Methodism. 



the chain, so in the polity of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 

Is it said that the Quarterly Conferences are 
close corporations, and self-perpetuating, and 
the nominations of stewards and trustees de- 
pendent upon the pastor ? Tn reply, I ask, Do 
we not find similar close corporations, under due 
provision of law, too, in all our States ? The 
analogy, therefore, does not fail. 

But is it said that our economy does not suffi- 
ciently admit the laity to a voice in the affairs 
of the Church ? We have before shown that 
they have several important advantages over 
other denominations, and they are constantly 
gaining others. Our Church legislation is, in 
every quadrennium, supplying something in that 
direction. Once, a minister, on his sole preroga- 
tive, could turn out a member from the Church, 
but now every member has a right to a trial be- 
fore his peers before he can be expelled, and 
can be expelled only on their verdict ; and he 
can object to any juror who sits on his case, as 
in civil courts. Once, a minister had the full 



As to Its Polity. 117 



right to appoint a board of trustees and fill 
vacancies; at a later date, trustees filled the 
vacancies on the nomination of the pastor ; now 
the whole Quarterly Conference, composed, as 
we have seen, almost wholly of laymen, votes 
on the election of trustees, and also of stewards. 
Such is the tendency of legislation in our 
Church to supply the missing links and recog- 
nize the popular voice. In the year 1872 lay- 
men were introduced into the General Confer- 
ence — the great legislative body of the Church. 
As to the appointment of class-leaders by the 
pastor — when it is duly considered how inti- 
mately these officers are associated with the 
pastor in the spiritual work of the Church few 
will be disposed to take from him the right of 
their appointment. 

It must be admitted that, even with some of 
the links yet wanting, the government of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, viewed as a whole, 
more nearly corresponds to the government 
of the United States than that of any other 
Church. 



118 The Why of Methodism. 



In the language of our bishops, in their Ad- 
dress to the General Conference of 1876, "The 
connectional character of our Church we regard 
as of the highest inportance and greatest utility. 
An army in detachments, under independent 
authorities, would be feeble and ineffective in 
comparison with the same army moved by one 
supreme authority, having unity of purpose and 
action. Germany under the Empire is much 
more potential among the nations of the earth 
than when under the government of independ- 
ent sovereignties. So the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, in the sublime unity of her grand pur- 
pose, and under the government and direction 
of the General Conference, as her supreme au- 
thority, is much mightier in her action and 
influence than she could possibly be in independ- 
ent divisions. She can better antagonize great 
errors, contend with enormous vices, overthrow 
combinations of wickedness, and press forward 
the triumphs of divine truth and grace in the 
earth.'* 



As to Its Polity. 119 



As to the Itinerancy. 

Some seem to think that the itinerancy of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church is opposed to the 
principle under consideration. If we study the 
itinerancy we shall see that it is founded directly 
upon the principle that we are " members one of 
another." The itinerancy has reference to the 
assignment of the preachers to their ministerial 
and pastoral work. It was constituted on the 
basis of the surrender of personal rights and 
preferences. Under this system, at the outset, 
the preacher relinquishes the right of absolutely 
deciding as to his field of labor, and the societies 
also surrender the right of absolutely deciding 
who shall be their pastor. This does not mean 
that there can be no consultation between the 
preachers and the people, nor between the 
preachers or the people and the bishop or pre- 
siding elder. By no means. This has always 
been not only allowable, but also necessary, in 
ascertaining the needs of all concerned. But the 
fixing of the appointment is with the bishop. 



120 The Why of Methodism. 



The Discipline defines the duty of the bishop 
in these words : " To fix the appointment of the 
preachers." He must judge between conflict- 
ing claims, and finally determine the allotment. 
This all good Methodists submit to gracefully. 

The reason for this surrender of personal 
rights is for the good of the whole, that every 
society may have a pastor, and every pastor a 
society. If the matter were left to be decided 
by personal agreement of pastors with societies, 
a large number of societies would be left with- 
out pastors, and pastors without societies (as in 
churches of the Congregational polity), to the 
detriment of each party, and of the Church as a 
whole. 

But we are asked if, under our present econo- 
my, there is not a large number of societies of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church without pas- 
tors ? We answer No ; not one. Those noticed 
in the Minutes as left to he supplied are all of 
them provided with pastors. Every society 
whose name is on the list in the Minutes has a 
pastor. Some are feeble societies, which do not 



As to Its Polity. 121 



feel able pecuniarily to take the responsibility 
of supporting a minister from the Conference, 
and desire some kind of a supply suited to their 
financial situation. If the society cannot be fur- 
nished with a pastor who is a member of the 
Conference, it is left under the care of the pre- 
siding elder, who provides one. Usually he has 
some one already provided, he having, in his 
oversight of the societies, anticipated the case, 
and arranged with some local or supernumerary 
preacher to take the charge, so that these societies 
are as promptly and regularly provided with 
pastors as others which receive ministers from 
the Conference. Preachers thus appointed by 
the presiding elder are as truly pastors as 
though appointed at the Conference. In case a 
few days or weeks should ever intervene between 
pastors, on account of death or otherwise, the 
pastorate is vested in the presiding elder, who 
gives special attention to the society until he can 
furnish a pastor to dwell among them, which is 
seldom more than a few weeks. 

Thus all Methodist societies have a perpetual 



122 The Why of Methodism. 



pastorate. If one pastor leaves, another imme- 
diately steps into bis place. While, therefore, 
we have not, in the technical sense, " settled 
pastors," we have, nevertheless, a permanent 
pastorate. No denomination but the Methodist 
has a perpetual pastorate. It is a great advan- 
tage to both pastors and people. 

Hence it appears that what men of other 
denominations have said to their own credit, 
and to. the discredit of Methodism, in regard 
to the permanency of their pastoral relation, has 
been full of misapprehension as to the facts, or 
unfortunate in phraseology, or both. The itin- 
erant ministry is permanent, unceasing. It never 
vacates, never intermits. The very act and mo- 
ment that dissolves a minister's pastoral relation 
to one society places him in the same relation to 
another society. The societies are never with- 
out pastors, nor the pastors without societies. 

One thing to us seems palpable : 

If the Methodist Episcopal Church 
should abandon the itinerancy and adopt 



As to Its Polity. 



123 



the Congregational polity of settling minis- 
terSj in less than five years one half of our 
churches would be without pastors. 

Let us see how it is with the churches of the 
Congregational polity. Turning first to the 
Baptist churches, we find that their Year-Book 
does not give the necessary data to determine 
the question of the number of settled pastors in 
the whole country; but the local "Minutes" 
for the several New England States enable us to 
ascertain the facts for that section, though the 
case in regard to some of their churches is not 
quite clear, some who are only supplies not being 
distinctly designated. 

Vacant Baptist Churches in New England in 1880. 



Number of Churches Per cent. 

Churches. vacant. vacant. 

Maine 262 113 43 

New Hampshire. ... 84 22 26 

Vermont 114 3*7 32 

Massachusetts 289 61 21 

Rhode Island * 

Connecticut .. 119 20 11 

Total 868 253 29 



* Not designated. 



124 The Why of Methodism. 



Of 868 churches, 253, or 29 per cent., were 
without pastors. In Maine, the vacant churches 
were 43 per cent, of the whole, and in Vermont 
32 per cent. 

Passing to the " orthodox Congregationalists," 
let us first notice what one of their own writers 
says : 

" Take the stronghold of Congregationalism, 
Massachusetts, for a little survey. In 1857 the 
number of churches in Massachusetts was four 
hundred and forty-four; sixty with ministers 
not installed, and forty -two not supplied. In 
1867 the number of churches was four hun- 
dred and ninety-six ; one hundred and four- 
teen with ministers not installed, and eighty- 
seven not supplied. The number of ministers 
not installed was nearly double in ten years, 
while the increase in the number of churches 
not supplied nearly equaled the increase in the 
whole number of churches. In 1877 the num- 
ber of churches was five hundred and twenty- 
six ; one hundred and seventy four with minis- 
ters not installed, and seventy-three without 



As to Its Polity. 125 



supply. In the last ten years the number of 
churches increases by thirty ; the number with 
ministers not installed increases by sixty, and 
the number without supply decreases by four- 
teen. For the last twenty years the number of 
churches increases by eighty-two, or an average 
of about four per year ; the number with min- 
isters not installed increases nearly threefold, or 
from sixty to one hundred and seventy-four, or 
on an average nearly six a year ; and the num- 
ber not supplied also increases on an average of 
nearly two a year, or from forty-two to seventy- 
three. (Massachusetts and Connecticut are the 
only States reporting more ministers installed 
than uninstalled.) The two States reporting the 
next largest number of churches are New York 
and Illinois. In New York, of two hundred 
and fifty-nine churches, only fifty-nine, and in 
Illinois, of two hundred and forty-two churches, 
only twenty six, have ministers installed. Iowa 
reports two hundred and twenty-five churches, 
with only seventeen ministers installed. The 
whole number of churches in the country is 



126 The Why of Methodism. 



3,564. Of these 2,693 are regularly supplied, but 
1,795 of the ministers supplying are uninstalled. 
' Tempora mutantur, mores mutantur? 

" Twenty years ago a leading and lively writer 
in our Quarterly made the following state- 
ments : 

u ' Few men of middle age are now in their 
first pastorates. A few Sabbaths of preaching 
seminary sermons, a hasty vote, a council obliged 
to concur — this is the settlement ; a few months 
of novelty, gradually waning to indifference, a 
a few years of sameness, a restiveness on the 
part of minister or people, a difficulty through 
some troubler in Israel — this is the tenure ; then 
a request for dismission on the ground of " ill 
health," a council to indorse the minister as an 
angel and the people as saints, condolence with 
the church in its " great loss," a separation — and 
this is the end.' 1 Such,' he adds, ' are the ma- 
jority of our pastorates.' If that were true, 
making allowance for rhetorical and quizzical 
features of statement, before the war, it cannot 
be less so now. There are more reasons for 



As to Its Polity. 127 



this state of things than we are now called upon 
to canvass, but the facts are significant." * 

Taking a broader and longer survey of this 
denomination, we find that until within a com- 
paratively brief period, say sixty years, their 
churches were w r ell supplied with pastors. In 
1770, in Massachusetts, there were 294 Congre- 
gational churches, of which only 15, or about 5 
per cent., were without settled pastors. In those 
days ministers were settled for life, and there 
was a complete union of Church and State. 

With considerable research we have been able 
to gather data covering several periods, showing 
the drift in the Congregational churches. 



In New England. 





Churches. 


Settled 
Pastors. 


Stated 
Supplies. 


Vacant. 




157 


104 




53 


New Hampshire. . . 


146 


116 




30 




203 


110 


"ll 


76 


Massachusetts 


227 


208 




19 


Rhode Island f 


16 


10 


5 


1 




223 


183 




40 


Total New England 


972 


731 


22^ 


219 



* Rev. H. E. Barnes, in the Congregational Quarterly, 1878, 
pp. 610, 611. f For 1845, earlier cannot be obtained. 

X Probably some vacant churches had stated supplies. 



12S The Why of Methodism. 



m,, -.w Settled Stated T7 . 

Churches. PastorSj Supplies. Vacant ' 

1870.— Total New England 1,442 671 444 327 

1880.— Total New England 1,472 620 544 308 

1886.— Maine 244 54 94 96 

New Hampshire. . . 188 67 70 51 

Vermont 198 55 95 48 

Massachusetts 536 277 189 70 

Rhode Island 28 16 11 

Connecticut 297 138 125 34 

Total New England 1,491 607 584 300 

Percentage of the Foregoing Churches with Settled Pas- 
tors, Stated Supplies, and Vacant. 

Settled Stated 

Pastors. Supplier. Vacant. 

1830 75 per cent * 24 per cent. 

1870 47 " 31 per cent. 23 " 

1880 42 " 37 " 21 " 

1886 41 " 39 " 20 " 

From the foregoing tables "it is evident that 
the Congregational churches, even in their 
stronghold, New England, are gradually loosing 
their "settled" ministry, the churches with pas- 
tors having decreased from 95 per cent, of the 
whole number in 1770 to 75 per cent, in 1830? 
47 per cent, in 1870, and 41 per cent, in 1886 : 
a little more than one fifth are vacant, and more 
than one third have stated supplies. 

* Too small a number to be calculated. 



As to Its Polity. 



129 



Turning to the whole country we find the 
following exhibit, covering a period of twenty- 
nine years : 

Congregational (Orthodox) Pastorate in the United 



States. 

With With Stated 

Churches. Pastors. Sipplies. Vacant. 

185T 2,315 947 592* 503* 

1860 2,583 898 694* 537* 

1870 3,121 903 1,438 780 

1880 3,745 881 1,919 945 

1882 3,936 927 1,986 1,023 

1886 4,277 967 2,218 1,092 

Percentage on Above. 

With With Stated 

Pastors. Supplies. Vacant. 

1857 41 per cent. 25 per cent. 21 per cent. 

1860 34 " 27 " 21 " 

1870 29 " 46 " 25 " 

1880 24 " 51 " 25 " 

1882 24 " 50 " 26 " 

1886 22.5 " 52 " 25.5 " 



While the total number of churches has in- 
creased 1,962, the settled pastors have increased 
from 947 to 967 ; a relative decrease from 41 
per cent, of the whole number to 22.5 per cent. 

♦In some churches, in these years, these items were not 
specified, the statistics in those years being less full and accu- 
rate than in later years. 
9 



130 The Why of Methodism. 



The stated supplies increased from 592 to 2,218, 
or from 25 per cent, of the whole number to 52 
per cent., and the churches wholly vacant in- 
creased from 503 to 1,092, or from 21 per cent, 
to 25.5 per cent, of all the churches. 

Outside of New England, the supply of pas- 
tors for the Congregational Church is very 
small, as will be seen by the following table 
for 1886 : 

Orthodox Congregational Churches. 

Stated Vacant 
Churches. Pastors. Supplies. Churches. 

United States 4,277 967 2,218 1,092 

New England 1,491 607 584 300 

Outside of New England. . 2,786 360 1,634 792 

In the United States, outside of New En- 
gland, only 13 per cent, of the Congregational 
churches have pastors, 58+ per cent, have stated 
supplies, and 28+ per cent, are vacant. 

We have also data for several other denom- 
inations, some for 1885 and others for 1886, 
though in three of them there is no discrimina- 
tion between stated supplies and pastors in their 
Year-Books. 



As to Its Polity. 



131 



Churches or 
Parishes. 



Pastors. 



Stated 
Supplies. 



Vacant. 



Presbyterian Church 6,093 

Southern Presb. Church.. 2,159 
United Presb. Ch. of N. A. 868 

Universalist 934 

Unitarian 356 



2,536 



2,352 
806 



1,141 
604 
244 
418 
76 



(624) 



Percentage on Above. 



Presbyterian Church. 



42 p. ct. 35 p. ct. 23 p, ct. 



Southern Presbyterian Church . . 35 u 37 " 28 
United Presb. Church of N. A 27 



Of late the question has been discussed 
among our Congregational brethren whether the 
installation of pastors should be considered essen- 
tial to the Congregational polity. This was the 
topic of an able article in the Congregational 
Quarterly, in October, 1878. The w r riter dis- 
cussed the question of principles and also of facts. 
He answered " the main question plumply in the 
affirmative." He said : " Theoretically and his- 
torically the installation of pastors is a constitu- 
ent part of the Congregational polity." " Not 
ten years ago, Connecticut Congregationalism 
declared in grave speech and graver document 
that no uninstalled minister was a pastor, or 



Universalist 
Unitarian. . 



45 " 
22 " 



132 The Why of Methodism. 



could properly be a member of a council." But 
the writer thinks the logic of events seems to be 
answering this question in the negative. 

The same writer says : " For a long time, the 
view was held and acted upon that a man was 
not a minister unless he was a pastor in charge 
of a church. For more than one hundred years 
of our history, moreover, ordination always 
meant w T hat installation now does. None were 
ordained ' to the ministry,' but over churches." 
His conclusion is stated in these w T ords, " From 
leading facts and principles, then, it would seem 
that the installation of pastors is a constituent 
element of the Congregational polity." 

It is evident that the Congregational polity, 
as a system, fails, if it does not furnish pastors 
for the churches. The Congregationalist for 
January 9, 1868, in an editorial article in regard 
to stated supplies, said : 

" Of late years, an effort has been made to 
make the relation sound more Congregational, 
by styling those who hold it 'acting pastors.' 
It is clear to careful reflection upon the funda- 



As to Its Polity. 



133 



mental principles of our system, that Congrega- 
tionalism recognizes no such church officers as 
having any place among the regular forces of her 
laborers. One of her cardinal doctrines is that 
there are only two grades of regular church 
officers — pastors and deacons — known to Script- 
ure. But a stated supply is not a deacon ; 
equally, he is not a pastor; because the Church 
has neither chosen him nor ordained him to be 
such. In a great many instances, as the thing 
works now, the Church, ac such, has taken no 
vote upon the matter, and has no official cogni- 
zance of the man at all ; the engagement by 
which the supply is made ' stated,' instead of 
for a Sabbath or two, having been made by the 
parish committee, without so much as saying to 
the Church, 6 By your leave.' " 

In reply to the inquiry whether Congrega- 
tionalism is not a system of common sense, 
under which provision is made for such exigen- 
cies, the editor further says : 

" Yes, but the radical and ineradicable differ- 
ence between her theory of the whole matter 



134 The Why of Methodism. 



and that of the system of stated supplies is that 
she regards no church, strong or weak, as in its 
normal condition without a pastor. Therefore 
she recognizes all other occupation of its pulpit 
as purely and necessarily exceptional and tem- 
porary; as simply a bridge over a lamented 
chasm. . . . The theory that it is right and wise 
for churches, because they are weak, or because 
they are peculiarly situated, or because they can- 
not quite find the man whom they are willing 
to settle, or for any other reason, to hire 
preachers by the year, as farmers do farm 
laborers, she utterly repudiates. . . . "We could 
mention towns in New England where the 
preaching of an orthodox Congregational pulpit 
has been thus for years controlled by the parish 
committee, who have made all bargains with 
their ( stated supplies,' and all selections of them, 
the Church meanwhile having no direct cogni- 
zance of the matter at all." 

The practical effect of so many churches be- 
ing without pastors is very bad. They often 
remain many months, and even some years, in 



As to Its Polity. 



135 



tins condition. No church, however strong, 
will be exempt from serious losses, besides fail- 
ing to make progress. The writer already 
quoted (an editorial writer) says : 

" A few years of such experiences are very apt 
to sink a church so low in its essential life that 
it is almost impossible for it to have more than, 
a name to live (if it retain even that)/ 5 

Again : 

"We believe the feeblest church of Christ, 
west or east, new or old, should seek to have a 
pastor. That is God's way. The feebler it is 
the more it needs a pastor. Let them take one 
of their own humble members, if they can get 
none better qualified; but let them have a 
pastor who shall dwell among them and make 
their interests his own. Happy will be the day 
for the churches when these ill-omened letters, 
' S. S.' and i A. P.,' shall disappear from all our 
statistics." 

Such is the testimony of an eminent Congre- 
gational editor. 

Thus we have, on the one hand, Methodist 



136 The Why of Methodism. 



societies fostered by a perpetual pastorate, and, 
on the other hand, denominations of the Con- 
gregational polity with a large percentage of 
their churches suffering from the want of pas- 
tors. What is the effect on the growth of these 
churches ? I will give the statistics as gathered 
from the official sources of each. 

The following table gives the number of the 
communicants : 

Churches of the Congregational Polity. 

1800. 1880. Gain. 

Baptists (all kinds) 103,000 2,452.878 2,349,878 

Congregationalists (orthodox) 75,000 384,332 309,332 
Presbyterians (all kinds) 40,000 937,640 897,640 

Total 218,000 3,774,850 3,556,850 

Churches of Itinerant Polity. 

Methodists (all kinds of itin- isoo. mo. Gam. 

erant) 64,894 3,669,932 3,605,038 

Methodism, starting in 1800 with less than 
one third as many members as all kinds of Bap- 
tists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists com- 
bined, has come to be nearly as numerous as 
all of them united, and her actual gain has been 



As to Its Polity. 



137 



48,188 more than theirs. The relative increase 
to the population of the country is full of sig- 
nificance. 

Inhabitants of the United States to One Communicant. 
Churches of the Congregational polity. 

1800. 1880. 

Baptists (all kinds) 51 20 

Congregationalists (orthodox). *71 131 — a relative decrease. 

Presbyterians (all kinds) 132 54 

Total, Churches of Congre- 
gational Polity 25 13 

Churches of Itinerant Polity. 

1800. 1880. 

Methodists (all kinds) 82 13 

In 1800, the communicants of the churches 
of the Congregational polity were one twenty- 
fifth of the whole population of the country, 
while the communicants of the Methodist 
churches were one eighty-second part ; but in 
1880 the communicants of the former had 
become one thirteenth part of the whole popu- 
lation, and those of Methodism had also become 
one thirteenth part of it — a gain of twelve in 
the population in the former, and sixty-nine in 
the latter. 



138 The Why of Methodism. 

We need not pursue these statistics any 
further. We do not, however, presume that 
the superior growth of Methodism is due whol- 
ly to her peculiar polity, which furnishes a per- 
petual pastorate ; but it is too palpable to need 
argument that this perpetual pastorate, con- 
tinually fostering the societies, has been a 
very large and important factor in its rapid 
growth ; and that the small number of pastors, 
ranging from 56 per cent. (Presbyterians) to 
22.5 per cent. (Congregational), leaving from 
about one half to three fourths of the churches 
either vacant or with only temporary supplies, 
must be very disastrous to the growth of any 
Church. 

The Boston Journal, May 21, 1881, in an 
editorial, speaks of the disadvantages of the 
Congregational polity, as follows : 

" Our local columns have lately contained re- 
ports of the case of a church in one of our 
Massachusetts towns which has installed a pas- 
tor after nine years' ineffectual quest. Two 
hundred and forty different candidates had 



As to Its Polity. 139 



been heard by the Church, and the final settle- 
ment was accomplished over the protests of a 
minority, which broke ujp one council on the 
score of technicalities, and endeavored to pre- 
vent the action of the second. What were the 
reasons which lay back of this extraordinary lack 
of harmony we do not seek to inquire, and it 
would be no kindness to rekindle controversies 
which we may hope to have been set finally at 
rest. But we may be allowed to use these cir- 
cumstances as an illustration of a difficulty quite 
often encountered among churches with vacant 
pastorates — although not often manifested in 
so extreme and acute a form. We hardly know 
which is the more to be wondered at, in the 
case which we have mentioned — the fastidious- 
ness of the church, or the endless succession of 
candidates, each as hopeful as his predecessor, 
who were willing to subject themselves to the 
critical scrutiny of a congregation, their chance 
of pleasing w T hom was about one in a thousand. 
. . . But this, serious as it is, is not the only 
evil that follows in the wake of this bad cus- 



140 The Why of Methodism. 



torn. It has a demoralizing effect upon minis- 
ters, who, by the necessities of their position, 
when they are seeking a settlement are tempted 
to consult popularity more than truth, and to 
preach what is palatable rather than what is 
profitable. No minister can be subjected to 
this sort of ordeal for any length of time with- 
out a distinct weakening of self-respect, and an 
uneasy sense of insincerity and unworthiness of 
motive. It serves further to deter young men 
from entering a profession the tenure in which 
is so hazardous." 

Another fact appeared some years ago in the 
papers : 

Itinerancy. — The Congregational Church 
in Northampton, Mass., has had twenty-nine 
different clergymen since July, 1855 (about two 
and a half years), seventeen of whom w r ere in- 
vited by the "committee " with the expectation 
of being " candidates for the vacancy." It is a 
large and wealthy church. This is rather more 
of "itinerancy" than even the Methodists con- 
tend for. 



As to Its Polity. 



141 



Another paper had the following : 

" Bishop Paddock, of the Episcopal Diocese 
of Massachusetts, in his recent charge to his 
clergy, said that ' pastoral changes are growing 
frequent. About one Episcopal minister in Jive 
is unsettled, and they change almost as fast as 
the Methodists.' " 

The Congregationalist says : 

" The same is too true with us, although we 
think there are signs of improvement. Some- 
body once said, sensibly : fi Four ministers out of 
five who resign do not need to, if they would 
realize it.'" 

Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, 
and Episcopalians have felt the disadvantages of 
their system. Prof. Tucker, of Andover Theo- 
logical Seminary, presented before a recent ses- 
sion of the National Council of the Congrega- 
tional Churches a paper upon the difficult ques- 
tion, how acting pastors or stated supplies could 
be recognized and invested with fuller powers, 
and brought into closer official relations with the 
churches they serve. The fact that the stated, 



142 The Why of Methodism. 



supplies in his denomination are two and a 
fourth times as many as the pastors, with a con- 
tinual increase in that direction, seems to neces- 
sitate some such action. The precise piece of 
ecclesiastical mechanism that will tit the case 
has not yet, however, been discovered. 

In the Presbyterian Church, the committee 
on the " Pastoral Relation," in the report to the 
General Assembly, in May, 1881, after deplor- 
ing the number of vacant churches, among 
other causes of their being in that condition 
specifies the following: "A want of system in 
bringing those who are able and willing to 
work and the vacant churches together." To 
meet this need the committee recommend the 
following plan : A committee in each presby- 
tery, to prepare a list of the vacant churches and 
the unemployed ministers, " who shall send" the 
ministers to the vacant churches ; and that all un- 
employed ministers, able for service, who refuse 
to be placed on the list, and work under the 
direction of the presbytery, if not excused, be 
retired, and so reported to the General Assem- 



As to Its Polity. 143 



bly.* This plan approaches very nearly to the 
system under which the Methodist presiding 
elders work. 

But this persistent seeking of one's own self- 
ish preferences in the settlement of a pastor not 
only results in the general disad vantage of leav- 
ing many churches without a pastor to suffer 
and to decline, but it often produces unhal- 
lowed and pernicious agitations. The choice of 
a new pastor often imperils the well-being of a 
church. Divisions and distractions spring up. 
Said Rev. John Angell James : f 

" It must be admitted that, on these occasions, 
our principles as Independents and our prac- 
tices as Christians have not unfrequently been 
brought into disrepute. We have been accused 
of wrangling about a teacher of religion till 
we have lost all our religion in the affray ; 
and the state of many congregations proves 
that the charge is not altogether without 
foundation.' 5 

* Minutes of General Assembly, 1881, p. 54?. 
f Church Members' Guide, p. 165. 



144 The Why of Methodism. 



Again he says : " We carry into the sanctuary 
and into the church our pride, our self-will, our 
personal taste. That spirit of mutual submis- 
sion, brotherly love, and surrender of our own 
gratification to the good of others which the word 
of God enjoins and our profession avows would 
keep the Church always happy and harmonious, 
and enable it to pass in safety through the most 
critical circumstances in which it can be placed. 
Instead of seeking the good of the whole, the 
feelings of too many of our members may be 
thus summarily expressed — '/ will have my 
own way? " 

Our itinerant polity, properly worked, will 
insure against these evils. The spirit which 
Mr. James recommends as the remedy for the 
evils incident to the Congregational polity — 
mutual submission, the surrender of personal 
preferences to the greatest good — is the basis of 
our itinerancy. Both ministers and societies 
with us waive personal choices, in order that the 
great ends for which the Church is founded 
may be more fully accomplished. 



As to Its Polity. 145 



Is it objected that, under the itinerant polity, 
churches sometimes receive undesirable minis- 
ters ? I reply, Do not churches which call and 
settle their ministers often find themselves mis- 
taken in their choice, and burdened with an 
undesirable minister whom they cannot easily 
get rid of ? But if a Methodist society gets an 
undesirable minister, is it not better thus than 
to be left a year, possibly several years, without 
any pastor ; and can it not, for the general good, 
be patiently borne for a year, when exchange 
can be easily effected ? 

It is also true that a Methodist minister will 
sometimes have an undesirable pastorate; but 
that is not so bad as to have no place, and to be 
obliged to go about the country exhibiting him- 
self and seeking a call. He will certainly bear it, 
if he be a true servant of God, when he consid- 
ers it part of an administration for the general 
good. 

Length of Pastorates. 
Other denominations set up high claims to 

superior advantages on account of longer pas- 
10 



146 The "Why of Methodism. 



torates; and some inconsiderate Methodists 
are so impressed by these utterances that they 
are inclined to weaken in their attachment to 
our polity. They do not realize how few 
churches, under what is termed the " settled 
polity," have long pastorates. I ask attention 
to facts* often overlooked. 

1. About one quarter of the Congregational 
churches are reported as vacant, having no 
pastors, and must, therefore, be counted out 
altogether. ' 

2. About one half of all their churches have 
only " stated supplies," usually hired from one 
year to another, so that they also must be 
counted out, when the supposed advantages of 
long pastorates are to be considered. This 
makes three fourths of all their churches to be 
excluded. 

3. Only one quarter, therefore, of the Con- 

* As deduced from the statistics of the Congregational 
churches of Xew England. The Presbyterians, Episcopalians, 
and the Baptists, except in the State reports for Massachusetts 
and Vermont, do not give the dates at which the pastorates 
begin. 



As to Its Polity. 147 

gregational churches can enter at all into the 
question of the advantages of long pastorates. 
These facts narrow the scope of the question, 
and greatly minify the supposed advantages. 

4. But how is it with this quarter of the Con- 
gregational churches which had " settled " pas- 
tors ? How many of them had long pastorates ? 
We are able to give an exact answer, based 
upon the table which immediately follows this 
paragraph. It was prepared some years ago, 
and gives the length of time each pastor had 
been in his pastorate at the time the table was 
made up. And it is for New England, where 
the Congregational pastorates are longer than 
elsewhere. An inspection of the table will 
show, of 682 Congregational pastors : 

5 of 50 years and over. 

9 " 40 to 50 years. 
21 " 30 " 40 " 
47 " 20 " 30 " 
119 " 10 " 20 14 

Of 281 Baptist pastors in Massachusetts and 
Vermont : 

1 from 40 to 50 years. 

2 " 30 " 40 " 
4 " 20 " 30 " 

11 " 10 " 20 " 



148 The Why of Methodism. 



Combining the Congregationalist and Baptist 
pastors, just given, we have only 9 per cent, 
of all the churches with pastors that had the 
same pastors twenty years and upward ; only 
13 per cent, had the same pastors from ten to 
twenty years. But one half of all the Congre- 
gational pastors, and three fourths of all the 
Baptist pastors, had been only three years or 
less than three years in their pastorates. All 
this, after reckoning out about three quarters 
of the churches, which either have no pastors ( 
or only have stated supplies. Combining all 
the churches with and without pastors, we find 
that only 5 per cent, had pastors twenty years 
and upward, and only 7 per cent, from ten 
to twenty years. A clear case of reductio ad 
minimum. 

It will be seen that the States with the 
longest average pastorates are New Hampshire, 
Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Fifteen long 
pastorates in Massachusetts, exceeding fifty years 
each, swell the average very considerablj r and 
count against very many short ones. 



As to Its Polity. 149 



IN NEW ENGLAND. 
Average Length of Settled Pastorates* 



Pastoes which have been set- 
tled. 



50 years and over. 
40 to 50 years.. . . 
30 to 40 " .... 
20 to 30 " .... 
10 to 20 " 
9 years.. ......... 



7 
6 
5 
4 
3 
2 
1 

Less than 1 year. . 



Total., 



Congregational Pastobs. 



Maine N. H. Vt. Mass. R. I. Conn 



67 



68 



82 



5 
3 
7 
25 
61 
1Q 
6 
16 
10 
5 
18 
28 
28 
33 
41 



295 



12 



1 

6 
4 
29 



4 
6 
6 
3 

13 
16 

30 
28 



158 



Average term of years . . 7j- 10 7 9 10 1 'd\ 4J 
Average, 8| years in all New England. 



Number 3 years or less . 


37 


45 


38 


130 


6 


87 


151 


57 


Per cent. 3 years and less 


.55 


.66 


.46 


.44 


.50 


.55 


.75 


.77 



Fifty per cent, of all the Congregational pastors in New 
England, 3 years or less; and 75 per cent, of the Baptist pas- 
tors in Massachusetts and Vermont, 3 years or less. 



* Stated supplies are not included in this table. 

f Unable to get data from other States for the Baptists. 



150 The Why of Methodism. 



But this subject should be examined more 
widely and discriminatingly. The preceding 
table had reference to New England exclu- 
sively, and also to " settled " pastors only. Two 
more tables are needed, one giving the " stated 
supplies" in the whole country, and the other 
combining the " stated supplies " with the " set- 
tled " pastors in the whole United States. The 
latter will be given because the tw T o classes 
are constantly becoming less distinct. First we 
have : 

Length of Stated Supplies. 





Number 
of Stated 
Supplies. 


Total 

Years of 
Supply. 


Averagi 
Years fo 
Each. 




. . . . 610 


1,948 


3.2 




, , . , 161 


409 


2.5 




1,215 


3,116 


2.5 




. . . . 1,986 


5,473 


2.8 



This table was collated from the Congrega- 
tional Tear-Book for 1883, and shows an aver- 
age of 2.8 years for each in the whole country, 
and this class constitute two thirds of all the 
pastors of their churches. 

The next table, from the Tear-Book for 



As to Its Polity. 151 



1887, will help to a still clearer analysis of 
the ease. 

There are so many random and indefinite state- 
ments in regard to this subject, and so little has 
ever been given to the public in an exact form, 
that it seems desirable to treat the subject more 
fully. It will be done in no spirit of invidious- 
ness, but because every Church polity is open 
to investigation, and should be tested by critical 
inquiry. We should all earnestly seek to know 
what form of polity best promotes the advance- 
ment of Christ's kingdom. For ourselves, we 
believe the old life-long pastorates were not 
conducive to the best life of the churches, and 
rejoice in the manifest tendency to shorten the 
term of ministerial service. Methodist itiner- 
ancy has doubtless been a great factor in ab- 
breviating the pastorates of our sister denom- 
ination ; and their greater growth, in the later 
periods, is one of the good results. We there- 
fore follow up these critical inquiries a little 
further, in the hope of doing good service to 
the common cause. 



152 



The Why of Methodism. 



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As to Its Polity. 



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154 The Why of Methodism. 



From the foregoing table it appears that in 
the whole country the average term of service 
in the Congregational churches, for the settled 
pastors and the stated supplies, is 3.8 years. In 
New England it is 5.4 years ; in the Middle 
States, 4 years ; in the older West, 3.2 years ; in 
the new West, 2.2 years ; and in the South, 3.1 
years. It also appears that only 10.3 per cent, 
exceed 10 years ; 3.1 per cent, exceed 20 years, 
and only 7.4 per cent, range from 10 to 20 years. 
26 per cent, of all these ministers have been 
less than one year in their present ministerial 
charges ; 47 per cent, only one j^ear or less ; 62 
per cent, two years or less ; and 71 per cent, of 
the whole number three years or less. Sixty- 
two per cent, of the whole average 1.02 years in 
their present positions. It must be kept in 
mind that one quarter of all their churches do 
not enter into the foregoing calculations, having 
no pastors of either kind — vacant. We have 
carefully analyzed the churches with long pas- 
torates with a view to determining whether 
long pastorates contribute to the greater growth 



As to Its Polity. 155 



of the churches in membership. Here are the 
results : 



Whatever other inferences may be drawn, and 
whatever may be true in the case of men of ex- 
ceptional abilities, it is clear that the long pas- 
torates, as a whole, do not contribute to the 
growth of churches in membership. Rev. 
Henry Ward Beecher's church reported only 33 
more members in 1886 than in 1876. Thirty- 
three of the above churches, with pastors of 20 
years and over, actually decreased in member- 
ship, or in a few cases reported barely the same 
number as ten years ago. 

In the Cities. 

It is claimed that the Congregational polity 
is better for the cities, because it affords an op- 



Number of churches 70 

Members in 1876 15.656 

Members in 1886 16,829 

Increase of members 1,173 

Increase in ten years 7 p. ct. 

Increase each year. . . 7-10ths of 1 p. ct. 



Pastorates 
of more than 
20 years. 




33,812 
42.382 
8,571 

25 p. ct. 

2jp. ct. 



156 The Why of Methodism. 



portunity for longer pastorates, so much needed 
in the larger centers of the population. But to 
what extent does that system furnish longer 
pastorates in the cities? Let us see. In the 
large table which precedes* it will be noticed 
that there are 326 pastorates exceeding ten 
years. Where are they located ? A careful 
examination of the Tear-Book shows 211, or 
74 per cent., in rural towns and villages, and 
85, or only 26 per cent., in the cities. 

So much is said about long pastorates in the 
large cities, and so many in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church are inclined to think that we need 
to make provision for the extension of the pas- 
toral term in these places, that it will be well 
to examine this question more at length. 

We take 81 cities, of 20,000 inhabitants and 
upward, in which there are Congregational 
churches. Their Tear-Books furnish the need- 
ful data for testing the question. There are 359 
Congregational churches in these cities. But 
37, or 10.3 per cent, of the whole, must be reck- 

* Pages 152, 153. 



As to Its Polity. 



157 



oned out, because reported as " vacant," without 
either pastors or stated supplies. The " pastors " 
and " stated supplies" in the remaining 322 
churches have averaged in their present posi- 
tions 5.9 years, not very long, certainly, but 
about two years longer than the average for the 
whole country, which we found to be 3.8 years. 

Of these 322 churches, 61, or 18.6 per cent., 
reckoning all which belong to the class of ten 
years and upward, have had their present pas- 
tors, on the average, 19.1 years each. But 15 of 
these 61 belong to the class of twenty years and 
upward, and average 31.1 years. 

The remaining 261, or 83.3 per cent., of the 
322 churches having pastors and stated supplies 
have averaged 2.8 years. And this, too, it must 
be kept in mind, is in the cities, while 10.3 per 
cent, of all these city churches are left out of these 
calculations, having neither pastors nor stated 
supplies. This is certainly not a very strong 
exhibit in favor of long pastorates in cities. 

But what of the success of the longer pastor- 
ates % Have they greatly succeeded in adding 



158 The Why of Methodism. 



members to the churches? The other advan- 
tages, real or supposed, are matters of personal 
opinion. Taking the churches which have had 
the same pastors during the last ten years, we 
find their membership increased 26 per cent., or 
2.6 per cent, each year. 

We find 15 churches which have had their 
pastors over 20 years. How have they suc- 
ceeded ? During the first ten years, 1866 to 
1876, they gained 36 per cent., or 3.6 per cert, 
each year; but during the last ten years, 1876 
to 1886, only 4 per cent., or four tenths of one 
per cent, each year. 

In these same cities we find 66 churches 
which have had the same pastors 6, 4, and 3 
years each. How have they succeeded ? The 
increase of members has been : 

In 16 churches, of 6 years' pastorates, 18 per cent., or 3 per 
cent, each year. 

In 20 churches, of 4 years' pastorates, 21.3 per cent., or 5.3 
per cent, each year. 

In 30 churches, of 3 years' pastorates, 11.2 per cent., or 3.7 
per cent, each year. 

Total average increase, 3.9 per cent, each year, in churches 
with pastorates of 3, 4, and 6 years each. 



As to Its Polity. 159 



Another Test. 
We have taken the trouble to carefully collect 
the data for sixty * cities which in 1880 had a 
population of 20,000 inhabitants and upward. 
The great amount of labor involved has pre- 
vented extending this inquiry to more than 
two denominations — the Congregationalists and 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. These sixty 
cities take all the largest cities, and are distrib- 
uted quite equally in New England, the Middle 
States, throughout the region between the Alle- 
ghanies and the Rocky Mountains, and include 
four cities on the Pacific Coast. The periods 
of comparison are 1866 and 1886 — twenty years 
— which will be a sufficient test. The question 
involved is whether, as far as can be judged by 
the statistics of the communicants, the itinerant 
polity suffers, as compared with the "settled" 
or Congregational polity in the large cities. 
Those of the Methodists comprise only the mem- 

* The previous calculation for eighty-one cities of this class 
was for 1876 and 1886. Some of the data being not obtain- 
able, for both denominations, in some of the cities, for 1866, it 
became necessary to limit the inquiry to sixty cities. 



160 



The Why of Methodism. 



bers in full, and in both cases the work has been 
performed with conscientious care and patience. 
The following are the results : 

Communicants. 
1866. 1886. 

Congregationalists 42,87? 90,866 

Methodist Episcopal Church 85,121 183,391 

Increase in Twenty Years. 

Actual. Relative. 

Congregationalists 47,989 112 p. ct. 

Methodist Episcopal Church 98,271 116 p. ct. 

The above calculation includes all the churches 
of these two denominations, in these aforesaid 
sixty cities of 20,000 inhabitants and upward, at 
the two dates, 1866 and 1886. It is evident 
that the churches of the itinerant polity have 
increased their membership more than the Con- 
gregational churches. The relative increase of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church is four per cent, 
more than that of the Congregationalists, and the 
actual increase, 98,271, is 7,405 more than the 
total members of the Congregational churches 
in those cities. So much for the success of the 
itinerancy in the cities. 

The question of other advantages of the "set- 



As to Its Polity. 161 



tied " polity is one upon which different views 
will be held. We do not believe the general 
extension of the term of Methodist pastorates 
would be productive of good. Possibly some 
exceptions, in large cities, might be made ad- 
vantageously to the Church. 

General View of Long Pastorates. 

If we go back one hundred years, we find 
almost all the Congregational clergy settled for 
life. In 1830, in Massachusetts, the average of 
the settled pastorates was ten and three fourths 
years; seven and five sevenths years i$ about 
the average at the present time ; but there is a 
large number of stated supplies in this State, 
whose average is now about three and one tenth 
years ; and both classes, in Massachusetts, now 
average only five and six tenths years. 

It is usually confessed that the long pastor- 
ates, from thirty to fifty years, with rare excep- 
tions under unusually favorable circumstances, 
have not been promotive of the growth of the 

churches. A wide and close observer, a regular 
11 



4* 



162 The Why of Methodism. 



correspondent of a leading newspaper, said a 
few years ago, " These long pastorates seldom 
leave a church in good condition;" that when 
the change is made it is " often in a broil," and 
is "followed by a succession of short pastor- 
ates " — a reaction from the disadvantages of the 
long ones. To us, who have observed these 
things as outside parties, it has appeared that 
these very long pastorates are usually deter- 
mined by strong personal influence and friend- 
ships, rather than by consideration of benefits 
to accrue to the cause of Christ in building up 
and enlarging the Church. And the objection 
most frequently alleged against the Methodist 
itinerancy is that "it is hard to part with a min- 
ister when one has just come to know and love 
him." We are not insensible to the pleasure 
and value of Christian friendship ; but we can- 
not withhold the suggestion that such argu- 
ments have a selfish basis, and put individual 
benefits in the place of the broader claims of the 
Redeemer's kingdom. 

Of 271 pastors in Massachusetts, in 1776, 223 



As to Its Polity. 163 



retained their pastorates until death ; and only 
48 were terminated by dismission or resignation. 
One had a ministry in the same parish over 70 
years ; 21, between 60 and 70 years ; 51, between 
50 and 60 years; 66, between 40 and 50 years; 
62, between 30 and 40 years ; 24, between 20 
and 30 years ; 32, between 10 and 20 years ; and 
only 14 under 10 years. It would not be a diffi- 
cult matter to show that there was little aggress- 
ive action during the middle and later portions of 
those pastorates. A knot of influential persons 
and families was built around the old pastor. 
The personal element predominated over the 
spiritual, and often to the injury of the spiritual. 

Is it not better to attach people to the Church 
rather than to a particular minister ? Will not 
the Church stand on a stronger, less fluctuating 
basis % 

We have no doubt that the shortening of 
pastorates, during this century, has been one 
element which has contributed to the greater 
growth of the churches, and that if the vacant 
churches were regularly supplied with pas- 



164 The Why of Methodism. 



tors another most helpful advantage would 
be gained. 

Conclusion. 

What, then, is the conclusion to which we 
come, as regards the question of Church polity % 
We learn that the denominations which retain 
their personal preferences, in deciding the pas- 
torate, do so to the detriment of the general 
good ; and that those who forego their personal 
peferences do so to the advantage of the cause 
at large. What a commentary upon the words 
of St. Paul : 

" Let each one of us please his neighbor for 
that which is good, unto edifying. For Christ 
also pleased not himself" — Romans xv, 2, 3. 
(Revised Version.) 

It cannot be impertinent to ask, 

Which is the more Christian — to please 
ourselves, as ministers and churches, to the 
injury of the cause of God, or to sacrifice 
personal preferences for the good of the 
cause as a whole ? 



As to Its Polity. 165 



And which kind of Church polity recognizes 
the fundamental principle of the Gospel, that 
we are " members one of another ? " These are 
questions to be pondered. 

It is very plain, therefore, that the itinerant 
economy of Methodism by which its preachers 
are assigned to their fields of labor, which has 
occasioned so much criticism, and the other 
great connectional features of our Church polity 
are founded upon the most vital principle of 
GocPs spiritual kingdom — we are "members 
one of another ;" yea, more, our Church polity is 
deeply rooted in the fundamental race principle , 
which recognizes the whole human family as 
u members one of another." Let this principle 
be every- where discarded in common life, and 
the race will not survive one generation ; let it 
be discarded in the Church of God, and weak- 
ness and disintegration must follow. 

The logic of this discussion inevitably vindi- 
cates the connectional and itinerant polity of 
Methodism, The line of argument is straight 
and irrefragible. No ad captandum advantage 



166 The Why of Methodism. 



lias been taken. It will be well for Methodists 
who live under the overshadowing influence of 
Churches of the Congregational polity, in New 
England and some other localities, to intelli- 
gently study the Methodist polity before has- 
tening to disparage it. 

The following remarkable acknowledgment in 
favor of the itinerancy in the cities, in an edito- 
rial in the Christian Union of June 23, under 
the heading " Cathedral or Itinerant," is full of 
wisdom : 

" Let the non-episcopal Churches emulate his example. Let 
them, in combination or singly, but in harmony, undertake at 
once to district all our large cities and manufacturing towns, 
and put an itinerant ministry into them, large enough in num- 
bers to organize the germs of churches in every ward, and rich 
enough in intellectual and spiritual equipment to be a match 
for all infidel and sensual opposition. . . , While the six mill- 
ions are going into a New York city cathedral, let the interest 
of one sixth of that amount go annually into an itinerant min- 
istry in New York city, and the other five millions go as far 
as needed into local churches which that itinerant ministry 
may call into existence ; and let the result demonstrate whether 
the methods of St. Peter's or the methods of the Franciscan 
friars are the most effective for the Christianization of a great 
and half-pagan city." 



V. 



LESSONS. 



1. Fbom the foregoing discussion we see the 
logical and the vital relation of our " General 
Superintendency " to the economy of Method- 
ism, and how incongruous a diocesan episcopacy 
would be in our peculiar polity. 

2. We see, too, the indispensableness of the 
presiding eldership in our Church organization, 
and especially to the working of our itinerancy. 
It is not only a legitimate, but a necessary, con- 
comitant of our polity — a connecting link, and 
an administrative factor. 

3. In this light, too, we see why our peculiar 
tenure of Church property, especially the clause* 
required to be put in all the deeds of churches 

* " The Trustees of said house shall at all times permit 
such Ministers and Preachers belonging to the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, as shall from time to time be duly author- 



170 The Why of Methodism. 



and parsonages, is necessary. It is a wise and 
legitimate provision for any Church which 
maintains an itinerant ministry. Without it 
the ministers could not be stationed. No 
society which assents to the itinerancy can log- 
ically refuse to conform to this condition. The 
unifying bond that binds us in a common life 
must include the sanctuary as well as the in- 
dividual minister and layman. The Church 
property must yield to this self-sacrificing spirit 
for the good of the whole. The same thing 
is true of all our connectional institutions and 
funds, the Book Concerns-, the colleges, etc. 
They must be held by such tenures that they 
may subserve the general Church. 

4. Our system of providing for the superan- 
nuated preachers, by funds raised from the so- 
cieties at large, is also germane to our peculiar 

ized by the General Conference of our Church, or by the An- 
nual Conferences, to preach and expound therein God's holy 
word, and to execute the Discipline of the Church, and to ad- 
minister the sacraments therein, according to the true meaning 
and purport of our Deed of Settlement." — Discipline of 1884, 
1 384. 



Lessons. 



171 



Church economy. Having shared in whatever 
disadvantages are involved in the itinerancy, for 
the good of the cause at large, and the societies 
having reaped the advantages of these self- 
sacrificing labors, it is fitting that the pecuniary 
support of the worn-out servants of the Church 
should be made a common cause. 

5. So also all our connectional collections are 
a part of a great scheme. The collections for 
foreign missions, for home missions, for church 
aid, for freedmen's aid, education, etc., are put 
before all our people, on the principle that we 
are " members one of another." 

6. The administration of discipline upon min- 
isters by Conferences, rather than by individual 
societies, as in other denominations, is also 
based on this principle. An itinerant minister 
belongs to the Church at large, and is liable to 
be appointed anywhere. 

7. But this peculiar economy cannot endure 
the inordinate self-seeking, the unscrupulous 
scheming, or the selfish combinations of over-am- 
bitious men, either in the ministry or the laity. 



172 The Why of Methodism. 



These things are foreign to its spirit, and the 
effect of them can only be ruinous. Every in- 
stance of such exhibition is a breach of good 
faith with our polity. The germinal center and 
the animating spirit of the polity of Method- 
ism is self-sacrifice of the individual for the 
good of the whole. It should be administered 
on this principle. It can be perpetuated on no 
other. An inordinate, scheming self-hood will 
destroy our polity. 

8. Is it said that Methodism is not what it 
once was ? Probably this is true. While great 
improvements have been made in medicine, edu- 
cation, mechanics, arts, philology, government, 
philosophy, science, etc., etc., it would not be 
creditable to any denomination to irreversibly 
anchor itself to the past, to face itself toward 
mediaeval times, and refuse to avail itself of those 
helps which providence is developing and put- 
ting into its hands. When I began my minis- 
try, I heard people croak about " old-fashioned 
Methodism." I asked my father, who commenced 
his ministry in 1816, if there was any such talk 



Lessons. 



173 



then. He replied that there was, and it was 
echoed very dolefully. Then I asked an uncle, 
who entered our ministry in 1800, if at that 
early time there was such croaking. "Yes," he 
replied, " I remember it well ; and a member of 
the class I first joined had been a housekeeper 
of Rev. John "Wesley. She said she had heard 
that kind of talk years before in England." 
Let us be more zealous to talk up Methodism, 
and to live it out in our lives. This will help 
the Church and bless the world. 

9. From the foregoing discussion we also see 
the true basis and limitations of Methodist denom- 
inationalism. A denominationalism intelligent- 
ly built up within the foregoing limitations 
w T ill be broad, attractive, healthful, and genuine. 
Supreme loyalty to Christ is the reigning spirit. 
If we believe that Methodism has been wonder- 
fully honored of God in advancing his kingdom, 
and with God's blessing is now performing a 
part unequaled by any other religious body in 
evangelizing and saving the world, these are all- 
sufficient reasons for our existence as a distinct 



174 The Why of Methodism. 



denomination. These are reasons, too, why 
Methodism should be made to do her best. Let 
Methodism be more thoroughly and zealously 
worked. Improve it, we should, if we can ; but, 
at all events, work it; work it. Let every 
Methodist work Methodism. 

Such a denominationalism is honorable, and 
will commend itself. The excessive, narrow, 
and odious forms of sectarianism, the follies 
and blunders of certain High Church assump- 
tions, have made denominational zeal unpopu- 
lar and brought about a recoil from genuine, 
healthy church-membership. I use this term 
broadly, as expressing devotion to one's denom- 
ination. In a public address, not long ago, Rev. 
John Hall, CD. , of New York city, emphasized 
the value of an intelligent and considerate de- 
nominationalism. He said: "Every man is 
religiously bound to be a member of a Church ; 
should know why he is in one rather than an- 
other; and should have a genuine enthusiasm 
for his own, while justly honoring all that is 
true in other Churches." 



Lessons. 



175 



10. Methodism was born of a revival spirit, 
with deep heart-yearnings and longings after 
God ; and it cannot live and perform its work 
without this spirit. Methodism has wonder- 
fully penetrated, explored, aroused, elevated, 
and called into active exercise the religious con- 
sciousness. How has she been able to do it ? 
By the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the human 
and the divine consciousness have been brought 
into sweet and active fellowship. The spiritual 
outcome will show the likeness of heaven. A 
spiritually baptized Church will work for God 
as no other Church can. Methodism, without 
this baptism, will lose its highest distinctive- 
ness, its efficiency, and glory. Only a people 
loving God with all the heart and our neighbor 
as ourselves can thoroughly appreciate and work 
such a connectional itinerant polity. 



176 The Why of Methodism. 



METHODISM IN THE WHOLE WORLD. 



These statistics are mostly for 1886, but some are for 1883, 1884, 1885. 



Churches. 








Total Lay 


Itinerant 


Local 


Lay 


Members and 




Ministers. 


Preachers. 


Members. 


Ministers. 


Meth. Episcopal Church. . . 


19 do 1 
lOjDD i 


12,813 




O A A A A 1 A 

2,004,014 


Meth. Epis. Church, South. 


4,434 


5,989 


1,061,943 


1,066,377 


*Meth. Epis. Ch., African. . 


1,832 


9,760 


400,000 


401,832 


*MetQ. E. Cn., Aincan Zion 


2,110 


2,750 


•AAA AAA 

300,000 


302,110 


Meth. Epis. Ch., Colored. . . 


1,046 


683 


155,000 


156,046 


M. E. Union Amer., Ool'd. 


60 


50 


21.000 


21,060 


Methodist Congregational. . 


225 


21 


13,750 


13,750 




453 


348 


14,478 


14,931 


f Methodist Independent. . . 


30 





5,000 


5,000 




50 




4,672 


4,722 




1,570 


929 


ion h aa 

128, /09 


130,279 




75 




3,000 


3,000 


*Meth. Wesley an in U. S. . . 






1 Q OCA 
lOjZOU 


1 Q KA A 
lo, D4:U 


Kindred Methodist Bodies : 










Evangelical Association. . . 


1,069 


613 


135.508 


136,577 




1,378 


890 


185,103 


186,481 


Total Methodists in U. S. 


28,249 


34,846 


4,436,806 


4,464,819 


Meth. Church in Canada.. . 


1,610 


2,682 


199,479 


201,089 


Methodists in Great Britain 












4,935 


37,725 


909,519 


914,454 


Wesleyan Affiliating Con- 












935 


9,218 


172,997 


173,932 


Aggregate in the whole 










World 


35,729 


84,471 


5,718,795 


5,754,294 



* Unable to get these statistics since 1884. f Estimated. 
The full statistics for 1887 would reach six millions of com- 
municants. 



INDEX. 



Ability, human, 70. 
Absolutism, 96 ? 97. 
Activities, Christian, 40. 
Acts ii, 47, quoted, 34. 
Adams, Rev. Nehemiah, D.D., 

quoted, 83. 
Advanced thought, 6. 
Anabaptists, 37. 
Analysis of Methodism, 28, etc. 
Anne, Queen, reign of, 14. 
Apostolic Christianity, 27, etc. 
Apostolic Church, 38, 42. 
Arianism, 17. 
Assurance of adoption, 48. 
Atheism, 13. 

Augsburg Confession, 29. 
Augustine, 73. 
Australia, 12. 

Baird, Rev. Robert, D.D., quot- 
ed, 86. 

Baker, Rev. Smith, D.D., 5. 

Ball, Miss Hannah, 62. 

Bancroft, Hon. George, LL.D., 
quoted, 86. 

Baptism of the Spirit, 39. 

Baptist churches in Massachu- 
setts and Vermont, 147-49. 

Baptist church polity, 103. 

Baptist statistics, 136. 

Barnard, Sir John, 15. 

Barnes, Rev. H. Ei, quoted, 126, 
127. 

Beecher, Rev. H. W., 155. 
Benevolence, pecuniary, 41. 
Bible Society, British, 61, etc. 
The first, 41. 
12 



Bible, the test of consciousness, 
49. 

Bibliotheca Sacra, quoted, 82. 
Bigotry, protest against, 33. 
Bill of Rights of Massachusetts, 
95. 

Bishops amenable, 108. 

a connecting link, 108. 

Methodist, 169. 

not diocesan, 108. 

quoted, 118. 
Blackstone, quoted, 16. 
Blair, Dr. — , quoted, 17* 
Body, the human, 98. 
Bolingbroke, Lord, 22. 
Book Concern, Methodist, 138. 
Boston Journal, quoted, 138. 
Bradbury, Rev. Samuel, 63. 
Brainerd, Rev. David, 38. 
Braintree, Massachusetts, 54. 
Bundling, 43. 

Burnet, Bishop, quoted, 16. 
Butler, Bishop, quoted, 15. 

Calvin, John, 29, 30. 
Calvinism in New England, 69. 
Candidating, 139, 140. 
Caste, 94. 

" Cathedral or itinerant," 166. 
Ceremonies, 28. 

Character of Methodism, 27, 
etc. 

Character, standard of, 75. 
Chesterfield, Lord, 22. 
Christian Examiner, quoted, 81. 
etc. 

Christian Quarterly, quoted, 87. 



178 



Index. 



Christian Spectator, quoted, 58. 
Christian union, quoted, 166. 
Christians in first century, 57. 
Christianity, apostolic, 27, etc. 
Church attendance, 15. 
Churches in America, 19. 
Church member's guide, 144. 
Church of England, doctrines of, 
48. 

aroused, 22, etc. 
Church universal, contribution 

to, 58, etc. 
Cities and the itinerancy, 155, 

etc. 

Citv evangelization, 60, 166. 
Civil politics, 95, etc. 
Clergy, the English, 14, 16, 18. 
Cloisters, 38. 

Coke, Kev. Thomas, LL.D., 61. 
Collections, pecuniary, 171. 
Colportage, 59. 

Communicants in United States, 
57. 

Baptist, 136. 

Congregational, 136. 

Methodist, 57, 176. 

Presbyterian, 136. 
Concentration and power, 110. 
Conclusion, 164, etc. 
Condition of membership, 33. 
Confederation, the old, 110. 
Congregational confession, 124- 
26. 

Quarterly quoted, 126, 131. 
Congregationalist, The, quoted, 
65. 

Connectionalism, 91, 108, etc. 
Consciousness, the, 49. 
Constantinople, 20. 
Contributions, pecuniary, by 

American Churches, 64. 
Converts of Methodism, 23. 
Cooke, Kev. Parsons, D.D., 31. 
Corporations, close, 116. 
Covenant, Half- Way, 54. 
Croaking, 172. 
Cromwell's Requiem, 13. 



Crooks, Rev. Geo. R., D.D.,36. 
Cross, doctrine of, 33. 

Danes, the, 38. 

Deed of church property, 169, 
170. 

Democracy, 96-98. 
Democracy, weak, 109. 
Denominationalism, 101, 173. 
Dialectical forms, 46. 
Disadvantages of the settled 

polity, 138-40. 
Discipline Ratio, 106. 
Discipline, the, quoted, 169, 

170. 

Dispensary, the first, 62. 
Dissenters in England, 17. 
Divine Spirit, the, 48. 
Dobbin, Rev. Dr., 63. 
Doctrines of Church of England, 
48. 

Dogma and life, 29, 49. 
Dogmatism, 47. 
Drunkenness, 14, 43. 

Election to General Conference, 
113, 114. 

Electoral Conference, 114. 

Eliot, Rev. John, 38. 

English court, the, 13. 

Episcopal Church and Meth- 
odism, 80. 

Evangelical teachings, 16, 17, 
18, 19. 

Examiner, the N. Y., quoted, 
81. 

Exhorters, 112. 
Experience, religious, 32, 33. 

Fastidiousness, 139. 
Federal bonds, 109, etc. 
Fellowship, Christian, 101. 
First century, 57. 
Fisk, Rev. John, 58. 
Fletcher, Rev. John, 61. 
Franklin, Hon. Benjamin, 22. 
Freedom, human, 68. 



Index. 



179 



French and Indian War, 55. 
French Revolution, 56. 

General Assembly, Presbyte- 
rian, 79, 142. 
General Conference, 114. 
General Rules, 43, etc. 
George I., 11., 14. 
Germany, United, 118. 
" Go," 40. 

Golden Kule, 93, 94. 
Grand Sultan, 11. 
Greek Testament, 21. 
Griffin, Kev. E. D., D.D., 54. 
Growth of churches, 136, 137. 

Half- Way Covenant, 54. 
Hall, Rev. John, LL.D., 174. 
Hand of God, 8. 
Hart, Kev. Luther, 55, 
Hawes, Rev. Joel, D.D., 105. 
Heathenism in England, 19. 
Heresy, 19. 
Hermits, 39. 
Hierarchy, 29. 

High Church assumptions, 174. 

High claims, 7. 

Hill, Rev. Rowland, 62. 

Holiness, 32. 

Holy Spirit, power of, 58. 

Home, Rev. Melville, 61. 

Hume, David, 18, 22. 

Huntington, Countess of, 23. 

Hunt's History of Religious 

Thought, 48. 
Hymns, Wesleyan, 71. 

India, early missions in, 38. 
Infidelity, 55. 

Influence of Methodism, 53, etc. 
Itinerancy, 119-170. 
Itinerancy and cities, 155, etc. 

James, Rev. J. A., D.D., quot- 
ed, 143. 
Jarratt, Rev. Devereux, 19. 
Johnston, Samuel, LL.D., 13. 



Kempis, Thomas a, 39. 

King. Rev. James M., D.D., 87. 

Laity, power of, 14. 
Latitudinarianism, 17. 
Lay-delegation,. 117. 
Lay-workers, 59. 
Leaders and stewards, 112. 
Learning and piety, 34. 
Lecky, quoted, 18, 75, 82. 
Lectures on revivals, Sprague's, 
54. 

Length of pastorates, 145-165. 
Licenses granted, 112. 
Licentiousness, 43. 
Life and dogma, 49. 
Life principle of the Church, 
100. 

Lincoln's, Abraham, motto, 99. 
Links wanting, 117. 
Local preachers, 112. 
London Missionary Society, 61. 
Luther, Martin, 29, 36, 37, 42, 
72. 

Lynn, Conn., 54. 

Magna Charta, 97. 
Marsh, quoted, 16. 
Massachusetts Bay Colony, 35. 
Mature convictions, 6. 
Mayhews, the, 38. 
Medici, the halls of, 20. 
Members, condition of, 33. 

expelled, 116. 

received, 31. 
Methodism, a reformation, 43, 

Analysis of, 28, etc. 

and doctrines, 46-50, 

and heresy, 49. 

and missions, 40. 

and morals, 74. 

and other Protestant 
Churches, 81. 

and philosophy, 47. 

and revivals, 53, etc. 

and theology, 49, 65. 

came to America, 56. 



180 



Index. 



Methodism, growth of, 136, 137. 

in history, 7. 

statistics of, 176. 

unchanged, 49. 

in Newfoundland, 40. 

in Nova Scotia, 40. 

in West Indies, 40. 
Methodist schisms, 49, 176. 
Middle States, morals of, 43. 
Ministers, Episcopal, in Vir- 
ginia, 19. 

supply of, 79. 

trial of, 171. _ 
Missionary contributions, 64. 

map, 40. 

societies started, 60. 

spirit, 38. 
Mogul, the Great, 11. 
Money raised, 64. 
Montesquieu, 15. 
Moorfields, 72. 

Moral condition of New En- 
gland, 43. 
Middle States, 43. 
Moravians, 12, 35, 41. 
Motto, 7. 
Mystics, 39. 

New Braintree, Mass. , 58. 
New England churches, 31, 43. 

revivals, 54. 
Non-conformist churches, 53. 
Northampton Church, Mass., 
140. 

Forth British Beview, 14, 84. 

Objections to Methodism, 91. 
Obloquv, 22. 
Opinions, 32, 33, 48. 
Origin of Methodism, 11-24. 
Ostracism, social, 22. 
Oxford Club, the, 39. 
Oxford University, 20. 

Paddock, Rev. Bishop, B.F.141. 
Paley, William, 18. 
Papacy ascendant, 11. 



Parish committee, 134. 

system, 105. 
Pastor, importance of, 135. 
Pastoral relation, 142. 
Pastorates, length of, 145-165. 

of 10 years, 158. 

of 20 years, 158. 

permanent, 121, 122. 
Peabody, Rev. A. P., D.D., 5. 
Pecuniary benevolence, 41, 61. 
Persecution by Calvin, 30. 
Personal element, the, 163. 
Phelps, Rev. Professor Austin, 

D.D., 18, 64, 65, 74, 88. 
Philosophy and Methodism, 47. 
Philanthropy, basis of, 96, etc. 
Piety and the ministry, 31, 32. 
Piety not ascetic, 60 . 
Pitt Street Chapel Lectures, 83. 
Platitudes, moral, 17. 
Political corruption, 13. 
Polity like government of U. S., 
110. 

of Congregationalism, 103. 
of Methodism, 91-176. 
Polynesia, 12. 

Porter, Rev. Ebenezer, D.D., 54. 
Porteus, Bishop, 17. 
Post-bellum periods, 55. 
Power from laity, 111. 
Prayer-meetings, 37, 58, 59. 
Presbyterian Church, 35, 103, 
142. 

Presiding elders, 107, 108, 115, 
169. 

Priesthood of believers, 36, 58- 
60. 

Profanity, 13. 
Progress, 172, etc. 
Protestantism, 38, 42, 117. 
Protestant colonists, 12. 
Protestantism, lapsed condition 

of, 11-19, 27. 
Publication houses, receipts of, 

64. 

Puritanism, 13, 14, 30, 31, 35. 
Purity of doctrines, 46-50. 



Index. 



181 



Purity of morals in churches, 
42, etc. 

Quakers, 37. 

Quarterly Conference, 112. 
Quickening, the, 19-24. 

Kace life, 94, etc. 
Raikes, Robert, 62, 63. 
Randolph, Hon. Edmund, 110. 
Reformation, the aim of, 30. 

in morals, 75. 
Re-enforcement, 53, etc. 
Religion without philosophy, 47. 
Renaissance, the, 20. 
Republican government, 99, etc. 
Republicanism and Methodism, 
117. 

Revival of 1800, 56. 

Revival almost continuous, 57. 

and Methodism, 34, 53. 

in Mass. and Conn., 56. 

in New England, 54. 

results of, 57. 

in United States, 53-56. 

spirit needed, 175. 

the Methodist, 21. 
Rights, natural, 96. 
Rom. xv, 2, 3, quoted. 
Roman Catholic Church, 102, 
103. 

Salvation Army, 23. 
Sanctimoniousness, 43. 
Schadwell, Sir Launcelot, quot- 
ed, 84. 

Schaff, Rev. Philip, D.D., quot- 
ed, 85. 

Scheming, selfish, 164, 171, 172. 
Schism defined, 101. 
Scholasticism, 47. 
Schoolmen, the, 46. 
Seeker, Archbishop, 19. 
Servetus, 30. 
Sixty cities, 159, 160. 
Society, British Bible, 61, 
for P. G. F. P., 12. 



Society, London Missionary, 61. 

Naval and Military Bible, 
62. 

Tract, 61. 
Solidarity defined, 92, 93. 
Sophi, the, 11. 

Southey, Mr. Robert, quoted, 
17,70. 

Sovereignty, state, 109. 

Spaulding, Archbishop, quoted, 
86, 87. 

Spirituality, 28, 32, 34. 

Stanley, Dean, quoted, 83. 

Stated supplies, 131, etc. 

Statistics of ministers and mem- 
bers, 176. 
of vacant churches, 123- 
130. 

tables of, 123, 127, 128, 130, 
136, 137, 149, 150, 152, 
153, 155. 
Stevens,- Bishop, 13. 

Rev. Abel, LL.D., 37. 
Stephens, Leslie, 18. 
Stockbridge, Mass., 54. 
Storrs, Rev. Dr. R. S., the elder, 
54. 

Stranger's Friend Society, 62. 
Sunday-school, the first, 62. 
Superannuated preachers, 170. 
Supplied, places to be, 120. 

Taylor, Isaac, 18, 39, 80. 
Theology and Methodism, 49, 
65-74. 

Theology, the working kind, 48. 
Thirty-nine Articles, 30, 73. 
Tract distribution, 59. 
Tract society, the first, 61. 
Trench, Dean, quoted, 92. 
Trustees elected, 115, 117. 
Tucker, Rev. Professor, quoted, 
141. 

Tyerman's Life of Wesley, 61, 
62. 

Tyng, Rev. Dr. S. H., quoted, 
85. 



182 



Index. 



United States government, 111. 
Unitarians, 103. 
Universalists, 103. 
Universities, 20. 
Upham, Eev. Prof. T. C, 106. 

Vacant churches, 123-145. 
Venn, Eev. Henry, 61. 

Washington, Conn., 54. 
Watts, Kev. Dr., 19. 



Webster, quoted, 92. 
Wesley and Calvinism, 67. 

and giving, 41, 42. 

and the Bible, 49. 

practical, 47. 

Eev. Charles, 69. 

Rev. John, 20, 27, etc., 32, 
61. 

Whitefield, Eev. George, 19, 23. 
Woman and Methodism, 37 
Women, coarse, 14, 



THE END. 



